a. and sb. Also 7 unick(e, 7–8 unic. [a. F. unique († unic masc.), ad. L. ūnic-us (whence also Sp., Pg., It. unico) single, sole, alone of its kind, f. ūnus one. In early use also directly ad. L. ūnicus, and stressed on the first syllable.]
Regarded by Todd (1818), as ‘an affected and useless term of modern times.’
A. adj. 1. Of which there is only one; one and no other; single, sole, solitary.
1602. Dolman, La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618), III. 639. Engendring one eternitie, and by an alone vnique action never disturbed, his linage full of understanding.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., II. xliv. He hath lost … his unic Son in the very flower of his age.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, IV. I. ii. 53. Divines, who make … right Reason the unic Criterion or Rule of moral Virtue.
1818. Todd, Unique, adj.,… sole;…, without another of the same kind known to exist.
1861. Paley, Æschylus, Prometh. (ed. 2), 39. The student will notice the unique example of στιχομυθία.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, III. iii. 87. A man … who made Latin scholarship his unique intellectual purpose.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 476. St. John instantly leaves the subject … to which he has made this unique and passing allusion.
2. That is or forms the only one of its kind; having no like or equal; standing alone in comparison with others, freq. by reason of superior excellence; unequalled, unparalleled, unrivaled.
In this sense readopted from French at the end of the 18th c. and regarded as a foreign word down to the middle of the 19th, from which date it has been in very common use, with a tendency to take the wider meaning of ‘uncommon, unusual, remarkable.’
The usage in the comparative and superlative, and with advs. as absolutely, most, quite, thoroughly, totally, etc., has been objected to as tautological.
1618. W. Barclay, Well at King-horne, A vij. This is a soueraigne and vnicke remedie for that disease in Women.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 3. A concentrated, and an unique aggregation of almost all the wonders of the natural world.
1809. R. K. Porter, Trav. Sk. Russia & Sweden (1813), I. xxv. 285. As it was thoroughly unique, I cannot forbear presenting you with so singular a curiosity.
1842. J. P. Collier, Armin’s Nest Ninn., Introd. A relic … not only unique in itself, but unprecedented in its kind.
1866. Liddon, Bampt. Lect., v. (1867), 368. [Christ’s] relationship to the Father … is absolutely unique.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. II. i. 84. A thing so totally unique The great collectors would go far to seek.
1885. Harper’s Mag., April, 703/1. When … these summer guests found themselves defrauded of their uniquest recreations.
b. Of persons.
1808. Foster, Contrib. Eclectic Rev. (1844), I. 233. [Sir T. More] is a person so unique in the records of statesmen, that [etc.].
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, 15. Such a unique mortal … no man can describe.
1885. Mabel Collins, Prettiest Woman, xi. He believed this woman whom he loved to be unique.
c. absol. with the: (see quots.).
1767. Phil. Trans., LVIII. 26. All these are examples of the unique; that is, of quantities in a state that is … exclusive of all others.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xxiii. She felt that Rose Yorke was a peculiar child—one of the unique.
† 3. Formed or consisting of one or a single thing. Obs.–1
a. 1631. Donne, Lett. (1651), 163. A Mathematique point, which is the most indivisible and unique thing which art can present.
B. sb. 1. A thing of which there is only one example, copy, or specimen; esp., in early use, a coin or medal of this class.
1714. R. Thoresby, Diary, 23 June. My Lord showed me some unics and other valuable curiosities.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 47. It … may be an Unic, for what we know as yet.
1774. Gentl. Mag., XLIV. 8. A coin, which I have reason to think is a Unic.
1826. Disraeli, V. Grey, II. viii. Mr. Vivian Grey had promised his Lordship, who was a collector of medals, an unique which had never yet been heard of.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., lii. 89. A unique, sir, and there is a pleasure in exclusive possession.
† b. Something of which only one is possessed by a person or persons. Obs. rare.
1783. H. Walpole, Lett. to C’tess Upper Ossory, 20 June. Lady Pembroke having lent them a servant besides their own unique.
1806. Surr, Winter in Lond., III. 170. This Belcher girdle was not old; but being an unique, it had been … constantly in use.
2. A thing, fact, or circumstance which by reason of exceptional or special qualities stands alone and is without equal or parallel in its kind.
1768. Phil. Trans., LVIII. 215. When I presented this map to the Academy … it was looked upon as an Unique.
1781. Gentl. Mag., LI. 280/2. The dedication [of a volume of Sermons] being an unique in its kind.
1794. Paley, Evid., II. ix. iii. ad fin. The propagation of Christianity … is an unique in the history of the species.
1835. Tait’s Mag., II. 651. It is … an unique in English biography.
1838. De Quincey, Lamb, Wks. 1858, IX. 156. Of Lamb’s writings … some were so memorably beautiful as to be uniques in their class.
1844. N. Brit. Rev., I. 124. A conflict, that stands out from all shadow of parallelism—a wild originality—a terrible unique.
b. A person of this class.
1758. Case of Authors Stated, 14. He presumes, that he, this Unic, must therefore appear in the same stupendous Magnitude to every body else.
1782. Cowper, Lett., Nov., Wks. (1876), 121. He is a man much to my taste, and quite an unique in this country.
1802. Mrs. E. Parsons, Myst. Visit, IV. 145. I trust that he though very good, is not an unique.
1813. Examiner, 22 Feb., 122/2. Those … charms of manner, which constitute an unique.
1866. Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, II. 65. The peculiar endowment in which he so far surpasses others as to be an insulated unique.
