Can we please use the word "unique" correctly from now on?
As a case in point, consider the sentence "He holds a unique place in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry since he's one of four men to manage both the teams...", which appears in this article.
Ladies and gentlemen, that means he's explicitly not unique. There are three other people just like him! Damnit. (And get off of my lawn!)
And in other news, is it unfair for me to think less of a white-collar employee whose line of work doesn't depend on spelling but who makes trivial spelling errors? I feel a bit guilty because maybe I shouldn't think less of this person because of this, but a native English speaker who makes certain kinds of spelling mistakes reduces my comfort level even in professional contexts in which spelling doesn't actually matter. Maybe it's just that feels like there's a lack of caring involved? (I of course know that some people are just worse at spelling than others, but when I get the impression that somebody can't be bothered, it annoys me.)
Spelling and grammar errors rankle me. The misuse of language is in the first tier of my pet peeves.
ReplyDeleteAs Stewie from Family Guy once said:
"You don't so much speak the language as chew it up and spit it out, do you?"
That said:
"“This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”
(AFAIK this is the most accurate version of Churchill's famous and oft-repeated statement. There is at least one interesting page that denounces Churchill's quote for using, ironically, incorrect grammar.)
This one particularly irked me because essentially it tried to use that as a definition of unique. And that mistake annoys me even in much milder circumstances.
ReplyDelete