Quantifying uniqueness ...?

[Tigerschick]

Is it me or can you not quantify how unique something is?

I know that you can say 'nearly unique' or 'almost unique' but 'very unique'?

It says here that 'unique' means 'one of a kind'; how can you be 'very one of a kind'?

Sorry but this really irks me

Is there another example of something that can't be quantified? I can only think of 'empty' but I'm not 100% sure of it ...

It irks DH too, infact he often shouts at the television over this particular offence.

Does he really ...? Oh, how ... erm ... silly of him ...

complete

almost complete
nearly complete

pregnant

a bit pregnant
not entirely pregnant

Couldn't you be unique in a lot of ways rather than in only one, hence you are very unique?

LOL Bink, how could I forget that one??

Complete, unique, empty, they all refer to things that are totally one thing, don't they? It's hard to explain what I mean ...

But, if you finished doing lots of things, you wouldn't be 'very finished' would you ... or would you??

No, you can not say "nearly unique" or "almost unique" (well, not without being wrong). If you are nearly unique you are not unique, just uncommon. Nor can you say "very unique". You are just unique. As every pedant's friend Eric Partridge writes in Usage and Abusage: "Unique, most or rather or very: An object that is unique is the only one of its kind in existence; there can be no qualification of the absolute without a contradiction of the quality which it asserts."

Unique is one of the most misused words in the language. It cannot be qualified or quantified in any way.

"Perfect" is the same. Something is perfect or it isn't.

well glinda mary poppins described herself as "practically perfect in every way" I think correctly. Some aspects of her character were not perfect but they were few compared to the many others that were.

Oh you have done it now! I will be singing songs from musicals all night.

There's an almost infinite number of examples I could give you, but I've almost forgotten all of them.

"Abusage"? What kind of word is that? Surely the noun is simply "abuse"?

There are some absolutes - like dead and alive...

But you can still say someone is nearly dead.

But they are still barely alive aren't they???

nearly dead or close to death? Can you be nearly dead?

You can say 'nearly dead' but not 'very dead' (I think).
Is that the difference between quantifying and qualifying?

Strictly, you can't be "nearly dead", but that's a more acceptable vernacular usage because its meaning is clear - in the sense that one can be on the brink of death unless there is life-saving intervention. "Near death", or a similar construction, however, is preferable precisely because it is more accurate (and you'll see it more often in print, I fancy). "Nearly unique", though, remains nonsense.

I nearly saw a policeman coming to help arrest us for language abuse.

help

Surely "near death" is the position of approaching a complete state but not yet being in that state. Whilst it may be grammatically poor, could you not also apply the same logic to any complete state. If my brother and I were the only two living Mr Smiths in the world and my brother was moments from death, would I not being approaching a state of uniqueness... "nearly unique", so to speak? It's not that I am half unique, but at a fast approaching moment I will switch from being uncommon to unique. Equally, there have been many occasions when I have been sitting on the toilet, and considered myself to be nearly finished.

I agree that you cannot be very dead, very unique or very finished...