4 ms·
I hate to be pedantic, but "penultimate" means "second last", which doesn't seem to be the intended use here.
by paulgb 16y ago
I hate to be pedantic, but "penultimate" means "second last", which doesn't seem to be the intended use here.
- guns 16y agoI thought that seemed awkward. What do you think they intend to mean?
- Throlkim 16y agoUltimate? :)
- paulgb 16y agoMy guess is "ultimate". Admittedly, "penultimate" is a cooler-sounding word.
- WorkerBee 16y agoAll words are cool if you don't know what they mean. If the reader knows what it means but the writer doesn't, the effects are less predictable and desirable.
- powrtoch 16y agoPenultimate has this in common with "literally". It's most often misused to mean the opposite of what's intended. Cue Inigo Montoya.
- studer 16y agoI'm not entirely sure if "next-to-last" and "last" can be described as opposites, though :-)
- powrtoch 16y agoWell, there is this: Opposites are a tricky concept, not well-defined in most domains. Your implication is that the opposite of last is "first". But doesn't it make at least as much sense to say the opposite of last is "not last"? From a programing/math standpoint, it seems like a strictly better, less arbitrary definition.
- Lunchy 16y agoThat's funny. The only reason I checked the comments is to see if I was the only one that caught this. :)
- davidu 16y agoIt's not being pedantic. The word was used incorrectly, as that word often is. It's worth correcting so the author and others are made aware.
- antirez 16y agobtw in Italian the only way to say "second last" is "penultimo" and I guess in most other european languages should sound the same, so a lot of non mother tongue English readers are going to read this as "second last" anyway, completely missing the "very ultimate" (mis)meaning.
- btilly 16y agoThe Romance languages do not make a majority of the European languages, and I would expect your comment to only hold for Romance languages. That said, the only person I ever heard use the word correctly in person was a Brazilian. I don't think that is a coincidence.
- antirez 16y agoack, sorry I meant "most romance languages".
- ax0n 16y agoIt could simply be that it is the penultimate guide for the time being. They know full well someone may come along and best it.
- drtse4 16y agoThe "ultimate guide to x" would have sound to pretentious, so to be humble and as an attempt to humor they choose this title (usually a guide is "ultimate" until a next and better guide come out). Seems a reasonable explanation...
- dminor 16y agoI just figured the "ultimate" guide is to unplug from the internet.