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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > UNPRECEDENTED

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pronounce UNPRECEDENTED:

un PRESS uh den ted
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connect this word to others:

I love the drama and heft of the five-syllable word unprecedented. It means new, unfamiliar, unheard-of, record-breaking, or never-seen-before.

Let's take it apart into
   un-, "not;"
   pre-, "before;"
   Latin cedere, "to go;"
   and -ed, "done;"
to see that it spells out its own meaning pretty literally: "done (with) nothing (similar) having gone before it."

Which is a lot of parts, and a lot of syllables, for a word that just means new. LOL.

Let's connect unprecedented with its cousins in English: other words that also trace back to Latin cedere, "to go, to yield, or to go away:"

1. To yield something, letting someone else have it, is to c__e it.

2. Something annoying because it never goes away is __cess__t.

3. Literally to "go between," to get involved by speaking up or helping someone is to int__ce__.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

definition:

To precede is to happen before, and a precedent is some event or decision that happened earlier that sets an example or helps you know what to do now. 

A situation that's precedented, then, is understandable or expected because it's happened before. We know what to do.

But a situation or even that's unprecedented is brand new: it's never happened before, or never been done before. And we might not know what to do.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "unprecedented success;" "Its success was unprecedented."

Other forms: 

There's an adverb, "unprecedentedly," and a noun, "unprecedentedness."

how to use it:

The word "unprecedented" is formal, serious, emphatic, and (ironically) very common.

We talk about unprecedented events and decisions, successes and disasters, achievements and failures, advancements and setbacks, benefits and consequences, and so on. "New medicines are helping people lose excess weight with unprecedented success."

We also talk about unprecedented rates, speeds, or amounts. "She's shedding excess weight at an unprecedented rate."

examples:

"We pulled into the mall. Then we went on an enormous shopping spree, unprecedented in my lifetime. Mom was out of control."
  — Edward Bloor, Tangerine, 1997

"The bird flu's unprecedented spread among cows marked a worrying shift. It had evolved to thrive in animals that are more like people biologically than birds." 
  — Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News, 20 December 2024

has this page helped you understand "unprecedented"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.




study it:

Explain the meaning of "unprecedented" without saying "novel" or "never-before-seen."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone) has an unprecedented opportunity to (do something useful or otherwise fantastic)."

Example 1: "As horrible as the pandemic was, it gave us an unprecedented opportunity to figure out how to live, work, and play effectively without leaving our homes."

Example 2: "The Australian Ad Observatory has created the world's largest known collection of the targeted ads people encounter on Facebook. Our 1,909 volunteers have donated 328,107 unique ads from their social media feeds. This gives researchers an unprecedented opportunity to examine what ads Australians see on social media and how they are being targeted."
  — Tanita Northcott and Christine Parker, Salon, 16 July 2024




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fragments.

In each issue, check out an excerpt from a master of American prose, one in which I've changed the lovely sentence fragments into ugly but grammatically correct sentences. Try restoring the excerpt to its original glory by chiseling those sentences down into fragments.

You can check out some examples here.

Try this one today. It's from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:

"Tom!" she called.

There was no answer.

"TOM!" she called again.

There was no answer.

"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!" she called once again.

There was no answer.

To see the original version, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of UNPRECEDENTED is PRECEDENTED. But a pretty close opposite of UNPRECEDENTED is

A. CODEPENDENT.
B. CONSIDERABLE.
C. COMMONPLACE.

2. The bishop in Les Miserables offers an unprecedented level of hospitality, _____.

A. giving a dinner of bread and water to anyone in need
B. giving a filling dinner and plenty of wine to anyone in need
C. giving dinner, wine, and shelter to anyone in need, even criminals




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. C

From the game: There are lots of different ways to render each highlighted bit into a fragment! If your version pleases your ears, then you did great.

Here's the original version:

"Tom!"

No answer.

"TOM!"

No answer.

"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"

No answer.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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