Unique means one of a kind.

A thing is unique or it is not unique. Moreover, uniqueness is hard to obtain. As people, we are all unique. We are each one of a kind.

Unique is one of those unique words that usually cannot take a modifier. Can a person be very unique? Can a person be so unique? Perhaps if they are unique enough, they might even be one of a kind. Arghhh!!

As this is one of my favorite things to say, my wife cringes every time someone on television says that something is very unique. Ack, it drives me uniquely crazy. My kids taunt me at the dinner table saying, “They had a very unique day!”

Something, can be almost unique, almost one of a kind. But can one thing be more unique than another? For all of you on the edge of your chairs, I say it cannot, but I believe that I am fighting a losing battle.

USAGE NOTE: For many grammarians, unique is the paradigmatic absolute term, a shibboleth that distinguishes between those who understand that such a term cannot be modified by an adverb of degree or a comparative adverb and those who do not. These grammarians would say that a thing is either unique or not unique and that it is therefore incorrect to say that something is very unique or more unique than something else. Most of the Usage Panel supports this traditional view. Eighty percent disapprove of the sentence Her designs are quite unique in today’s fashions. But as the language of advertising in particular attests, unique is widely used as a synonym for “worthy of being considered in a class by itself, extraordinary,” and if so construed it may arguably be modified. In fact, unique appears as a modified adjective in the work of many reputable writers. A travel writer states that “Chicago is no less unique an American city than New York or San Francisco,” for example, and the critic Fredric Jameson writes “The great modern writers have all been defined by the invention or production of rather unique styles.” Although these examples of the qualification of unique are defensible, writers should be aware that such constructions are liable to incur the censure of some readers.

Via www.answers.com/topic/unique”>answers.com

Now here is someone who disagrees. Sigh!!! A Google search returns millions of usages of “very unique” (although some of them talk about how it is incorrect usage, HA!!!). Here is an article entitled, A List of Some Very Unique Baby Girls Names that You Might like to Use for Your New Baby Coming Soon.

Sigh, while I understand that language evolves and informal usage emerges. The word unique, is, well, unique. It would be a shame to lose that word. Although don’t slightly unique french fries sound delicious

Merriam-Webster‘s dictionary provides 3 definitions of irony:

1. a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2. a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance
3. a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony or tragic irony

This third usage is what seems to cause a problem.  Ironic does not mean unlucky, unfortunate, or inconsistent.  Ironic does not describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that “suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly.”

There are 3 modern classifications of irony: verbal, dramatic and situational.

1. Verbal irony, when a speaker says one thing but means another or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect as in sarcasm.
2. Dramatic irony, when the action of a speaker or character has a meaning that the audience understands, but the speaker or character does not.
3. Situational irony, when there is a difference between intention and result.

Some argue that situational irony is not irony at all.

So what are some examples of irony?

• Verbal irony:  as hard as putty or as funny as cancer
• Dramatic irony: In the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged death-like sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet kills herself with his dagger.
• Situational irony: When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire was partially responsible for his being shot.

(examples via Wikipedia)

A perfect example of the misuse of the word ironic is Alanis Morissette’s song Ironic. The fact that this song misuses the word ironic in each of its uses, is itself ironic.

Example 1:

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day

The song asks isn’t it ironic? The answer is, “No.” It is unlucky. If the man died from inhalation of the dust from scratching years of lottery tickets, that would be ironic.

Example 2:

It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay

The song asks isn’t it ironic? The answer is, “No.” If the fly ended up in the wine because the drinkers had just sprayed bug spray, that would be ironic.

Example 3:

It’s like rain on your wedding day

The song asks isn’t it ironic? The answer is, “No.” If the bride happened to be the editor of the Farmers Almanac’s weather predictions, that would be ironic.

The fact that I really like Morissette’s song even after being bothered for almost two decades by its non-irony, that too is ironic. The fact that my wife hates that I say that “rain on your wedding day” is not ironic every time I hear the word irony, that is not ironic. It is annoying, well at least that is what my wife says.