Number 58
You know not to add "very" or similar qualifiers to "unique." Something is either unique or not. One of a kind does not mean merely unusual, which could mean maybe two or three of a kind. People must not understand what it means ~ "uni" = one, e pluribus unum and all that ~ and I blame advertising. Superlatives are used so often in advertising that people seldom believe them. Probably the statement "This product is unique" is almost always a lie. So when people understand that subliminally, and want to use the word anyway, they feel it can't stand alone, it's not enough, it needs an intensifier ~ "This product is very unique!" Same goes for "perfect" ~ if something is very perfect, a lesser perfection is implied; then it may fall short of perfection, in which case it is not perfect.
This can be confusing, because we can modify these words. Something can be almost unique or almost perfect. In other words, we can aspire to uniqueness or perfection, but once we attain it, there's nowhere else to go. Once you've reached the North Pole, you can't go further north.
"Very pregnant" is a similar phrase ~ you are either pregnant or not ~ the old joke is that you can't be a little bit pregnant. However, people are starting to think you can, using "very pregnant" to refer to the length of the pregnancy: someone who's close to the end of term is referred to as "very pregnant." (I even heard a TV newscaster use this phrase, referring to a missing woman. I still hear that phrase in my mind as a joke, and it was jarring to hear it in this context.) A side issue: I've heard or read people referring to a married couple as pregnant. While this touchingly acknowledges the shared aspects of the situation, I'd be more touched if one could also say, and mean it, "They're throwing up" or "They're in labor" or "They gained 100 pounds between them and can't lose it." So far, it is still true that only women can be pregnant. Both men and women, however, can be "expecting."
For years we've been hearing "like" used as an all-purpose filler, rather than as a comparative ~ "Like, it is, like, so cold out." (Don't you miss "uh"?) Now it's even a kind of verb construction meaning "say" or "think." "So she saw her boyfriend out with another girl and now she's like, it's so over." The speaker who uses "like" is edging toward making a definite statement, but doesn't want to commit to one. Also, the listener is invited to fill in the gaps of meaning, which may suggest a pleasing confluence of thought, but also an unwillingness to take full responsibility for a sentence.
When people aren't clear about the meaning of words, and when they're not clear about their own meaning, they will modify words and qualify their statements to death. This is why writers are advised to avoid adjectives and adverbs, and rely on nouns and verbs alone. Some of the business language I wrote about in "Ghoti Hell" (PO 5) suffers from the fear of being too definite. People make "efforts to" do something, they work in the "area of" something. It sounds so constipated.
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