Egregious uses of

In My Humble Opinion
1

Poor “unique.” It must be the most overworked and abused word in the English language. I’ve seen/heard it horribly misused three times in as many days.

  1. That state quarters commercial: “This is one of the most unique programs the US Mint has ever done.”

  2. On a bottle of fabric paint: “You’ll always get unique results, however, we can’t guarantee consistency of results . . .”

  3. On a commercial: “Plum Blossom Buffet is unique, and different from other Chinese restaurants.”

2

I’m only partially unique.

3

beautiful is used way too much. The meaning behind the word is definitely devalued.

4

I’m not so fussy. People can say unique, like they say infinite, or thanks a million, and I’ll know they really mean “odd, many, or thanks 1-1/2 times”.

5

I hate that too. I was just reading an old document that misused the word “perfect”. "In order to form a more perfect union, " it said, and went on with a bunch of subversive mumbo jumbo. Didn’t they have proofreaders in the old days?

6

Always remenber you’re unique, just like everybody else.

7

How do you catch a unique rabbit?

unique up on it.
runs

8

One of the kunilou kids’ freshman English teachers has posted a list of flabby, overused words she does not want to see any more. Any student who uses any of the words in an assignment gets points off.

9

Special This word pisses me off so much now that any mention of it just drives me up the wall. However, the only time I tolerate it is when refering to the food industry, specifically a “lunch special”.

10

When I lived in NY I used to walk past the Unique Copy shop. Nobody else ever seemed to have a problem with this.

11

Hey, “unique” has evolved as a word. Do you think it would be unique in that respect?

My only complaint is that copywriters use the word when they can’t think of anything else to say.

And even in its traditional meaning, “unique” could be used as a comparative:

“Getting married is a unique experience.” True.
“Walking on the moon is a unique experience.” Also True.
“Walking on the moon is more unique than getting married.” True again.

12

Main Entry: unique
Pronunciation: yu-'nEk
Function: adjective
Etymology: French, from Latin unicus, from unus one – more at ONE
Date: 1602
1 : being the only one : SOLE <his unique concern was his own comfort> <I can’t walk away with a unique copy. Suppose I lost it? – Kingsley Amis> <the unique factorization of a number into prime factors>
2 a : being without a like or equal : UNEQUALED <could stare at the flames, each one new, violent, unique – Robert Coover> b : distinctively characteristic : PECULIAR 1 <this is not a condition unique to California – Ronald Reagan>
3 : UNUSUAL <a very unique ball-point pen> <we were fairly unique, the sixty of us, in that there wasn’t one good mixer in the bunch – J. D. Salinger>
synonym see STRANGE

  • unique·ly adverb
  • unique·ness noun
    usage Many commentators have objected to the comparison or modification (as by somewhat or very) of unique; the statement that a thing is either unique or it is not has often been repeated by them. Objections are based chiefly on the assumption that unique has but a single absolute sense, an assumption contradicted by information readily available in a dictionary. Unique dates back to the 17th century but was little used until the end of the 18th when, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was reacquired from French. H. J. Todd entered it as a foreign word in his edition (1818) of Johnson’s Dictionary, characterizing it as “affected and useless.” Around the middle of the 19th century it ceased to be considered foreign and came into considerable popular use. With popular use came a broadening of application beyond the original two meanings (here numbered 1 and 2a). In modern use both comparison and modification are widespread and standard but are confined to the extended senses 2b and 3. When sense 1 or sense 2a is intended, unique is used without qualifying modifiers.
13

I’m literally boiling with rage at these posts. Soon I’ll be hopping mad.

14

sailor, I don’t oppose the use of “unique” as different, so much as I am made weary by the fact that it has been overused to the point that it now seems to convey no information. (My use of “misused” in the OP was, in retrospect, a poor choice.) In the US Mint example, “unique” is so heavily modified by “one of the most” that it doesn’t tell us anything. In the other examples, they say your results will be “unique” but then go on to tell you that they can’t guarantee they won’t be identical to everyone else’s, and they tell you that their restaurant is unique, but then they have to go on to tell you that it’ll be different from other restaurants. In both those cases, the use of the word “unique” is just wasteful verbage. It has a generally positive spin, but which doesn’t really mean anything. As RealityChuck says, it is becoming a word people use when they can’t think of anything else.

I personally reserve “unique” for one-of-a-kind. Otherwise, words like unusual or different will usually do. “More unique” doesn’t grate on me too much–it has been pointed out to me in the past that that’s a valid usage. It’s when unique is used as a euphemism for “weird” or when it’s sprinkled throughout advertising copy that it makes me sad.

15

What gets me is the use of “LITERALLY” to connote emphasis:

I literally died laughing.
We fight literally all the time.
She literally puked her brains out.

LITERALLY? I don’t think so.