English Grammar

[argosy]

Is the word 'unique' classed as a superlative or does it , and similar words, come under a different heading?

[Quizmonster]

The word 'unique' is considered to be - in its strictest sense - an adjective which is 'not gradable'. It's rather like 'virginal' in that respect...you either are or are not a virgin; there's no halfway house!
Of course, in day-to-day use, the word often is 'graded' when people say something is "rather unique" or "comparatively unique".

[argosy]

Thanks Quizmonster. Confirms what I first thought , but felt unsure, as 'other times other ways' might have come into it.

[FoxLee]

So many people quantify unique, quite unique, very unique and so on. It drives me mad, one of my pet hates. If there are two of them, then it isn't unique!! My son and I also argue over 'perfect' and 'exact' which I also believe can't or shouldn't be quantified as in almost perfect but I think I'm losing that battle with him.

[jno]

I think 'almost unique' is ok - if there was only one other, for instance - and almost perfect too (like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way).

[Quizmonster]

You say, J, "if there was only one other", but what about two others or five, if we were looking at a situation involving, say, millions of similar things? Where do you stop and why make it at one?
The problem is that, strictly speaking, uniqueness is an absolute quality. In that vein - as I said above - one can be no more 'almost unique' than one can be 'almost a virgin'.
Of course, in language, "usage is king"...if most people accept a way of employing words is acceptable, then acceptable it is and there's an end of the matter. Personally, however, I would never say 'almost unique', as it is not yet acceptable to me.

[jno]

a fair question, Quizmonster, and one I've never been able to give a logical answer to. But then if a man with one hair on his head is accounted bald, what is a man with two (etc) hairs? Perhaps the reasoning might be that you can't take away from uniqueness (by being very unique), but you can approach it (by being almost unique)? So when the world's population of bald eagles has been reduced to one, it will be unique... but what, then, was it before the second-last died? Certainly, close to uniquity...

[Quizmonster]

My point though, J, is that you can't be "close to" uniqueness any more than you can be "almost" a virgin! If something is not actually the one and only, then the word 'unique' has nothing whatever to do with that thing. It is an irrelevant word in any set of circumstances where more than one item is involved. (Your man with but one hair on his head is perfectly entitled to call it his very own unique hair, of course!)

But what the hey! I'll leave it at that.

[Peter Pedant]

for any one with a maths background,
this is easy, unique takes the value 0 or 1
its unique or it isnt

you can't be half unique

in fat you can be half married or almost engaged, and there are quite a lot of words this could be usefully applied to .

as for a unique pair - is that possible ?

PP