Uniquity

[undyingking]

Our quiz streak has come to an end, or (as I prefer to see it) been interrupted -- after winning the Copdock pre-school one, the last one at the Nelson (they concentrate on food instead during the summer), and the Neighbourhood Watch one, we only ran-up at the Dove beer festival quiz.

I'd like to say (although it isn't true) that this was because we were musing over a curiosity of usage that popped up in one of the earlier questions. See what you make of it!

The question was "What is unique about the Edradour whisky distillery?"

And the answer was "It's the smallest distillery in Scotland."

Now this made me feel quite uneasy, but I'm not sure why. Clearly being the smallest does in a sense make it unique, in that there can be only one that is the smallest, and this is that one. But it seems to me that "unique" should require more than that.

Thinking about it, I think that for "unique" to be satisfying, it must be a quality that only one thing possesses, but that others could do -- they just happen not to. Eg. Edradour might be the only distillery with red roof tiles, or the only one owned by a cat, or the only one that begins with "e".

So things like "the smallest" which is just one extreme of a continuum along which they all lie, don't count. Nor does any other quality of which there must always be exactly one example -- this seems to me like a "trivial uniqueness", for which there ought to be a different word.

[Poll #1195623]

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I don't like the usage.

Thinking about it, part of the reason why not is because of a programming-related mindset. I'm inclined to use the word unique in this way to refer to a property of a thing. But "smallest" isn't a property of a thing, because it can be lost without changing the thing itself.

For example, this line of reasoning fails...

* It is known that thing A is unique because P(A) is true.
* We add a new thing B to the environment such that P(B).
* Now neither A nor B is unique in satisfying P(X), because P(A) and P(B) hold.

(Edited to fix typo 'is' -> 'in'.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there are many properties in the conversational world which would count as "definitively" unique in that sense.

The "only distillery owned by a cat" type of uniqueness would fail just as badly as the "smallest" type.

(If I understand you right?)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

The "only distillery owned by a cat" type of uniqueness would fail just as badly as the "smallest" type.

No, not at all. If a new distillery opens which is also owned by a cat then - critically - the first one is still owned by a cat. (Because ownership is a property of a distillery.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Aha, ISWYM.

(edited for typo(!))

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

If you can get whiskey from the only distillery owned by a cat, I want some.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Dalwhinnie is owned by a horse (possibly).