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Unique vs Own - What's the difference?

unique | own |

As adjectives the difference between unique and own

is that unique is (not comparable) being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched while own is belonging to; possessed; proper to.

As a noun unique

is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

As a verb own is

(lb) to have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); "to possess by right; to have the right of property in; to have the legal right or rightful title to" (ref 1) or own can be (obsolete) to grant; give.

unique

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (not comparable) Being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=3 citation , passage=‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique . The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’}}
  • *
  • *
  • Of a feature, such that only one holder has it.
  • Particular, characteristic.
  • * '>citation
  • (proscribed) Of a rare quality, unusual.
  • * {{quote-book, passage=And as I look back, it seems to me that we were fairly unique , the sixty of us, in that there wasn’t one good mixer in the bunch.
  • , title=For Esmé—With Love and Squalor , author=J.D. Salinger , year=1950}}

    Usage notes

    The comparative and superlative forms more unique'' and ''most unique'', as well as the use of ''unique'' with modifiers as in ''fairly unique'' and ''very unique , are sometimes proscribed, with the reasoning that either something is unique or it is not.

    Synonyms

    (checksyns) * one of a kind * sui generis * singular

    Derived terms

    * uniqueness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.
  • * De Quincey
  • The phoenix, the unique of birds.

    own

    English

    Etymology 1

    (wikipedia own) From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) , (etyl) (m). See also the related term (m).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); "To possess by right; to have the right of property in; to have the legal right or rightful title to." (Ref 1)
  • I own this car.
  • (lb) To admit, concede, grant, allow, acknowledge, confess; not to deny.
  • * 1902 , Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness , Tank Books 2007, p. 25:
  • I am sorry to own I began to worry then.
  • * 1913 ,
  • They learned how perfectly peaceful the home could be. And they almost regretted—though none of them would have owned to such callousness—that their father was soon coming back.
  • (lb) To claim as one's own; to answer to.
  • * 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
  • I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me.
  • (lb) To acknowledge or admit the possession or ownership of. (Ref 3)
  • (lb) To defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.
  • I will own my enemies.
    If he wins, he will own you.
  • (lb) To virtually or figuratively enslave.
  • To defeat, dominate, or be above, also spelled (m).
  • To illicitly obtain "super-user" or "root" access into a computer system thereby having access to all of the user files on that system; pwn.
  • Synonyms
    * (have rightful possession of) to possess * (acknowledge responsibility for) be responsible for, admit or take responsibility for * (admit) confess, acknowledge, allow * (defeat) beat, defeat, overcome, overthrow, vanquish, have, take, best
    Derived terms
    * owndom * own up * owner * pwn * disown

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), .

    Alternative forms

    * (informal contraction)

    Adjective

    (en determiner)
  • Belonging to; possessed; proper to.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.}}
  • * , chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own .}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
  • (obsolete) Peculiar, domestic.
  • (obsolete) Not foreign.
  • Usage notes
    * implying ownership, often with emphasis. It always follows a possessive pronoun, or a noun in the possessive case.
    Derived terms
    * come into one's own * on one's own

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) is attested. Etymology] of the German cognate in [[:w:de:Deutsches Wörterbuch, Deutsches Wörterbuch]

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To grant; give.
  • To admit; concede; acknowledge.
  • * 1611 , Shakespeare, The Tempest , v.:
  • Two of those fellows you must know and own .
  • * 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. 1, ''Jocelin of Brakelond
  • It must be owned , the good Jocelin, spite of his beautiful childlike character, is but an altogether imperfect 'mirror' of these old-world things!
  • To recognise; acknowledge.
  • to own one as a son
  • To confess.
  • Statistics

    *

    References

    * 1896 , Universal Dictionary of the English Language [UDEL] , v3 p3429: *: To possess by right; to have the right of property in; to have the legal right or rightful title to. * 1896 , ibid., UDEL * 1896 , ibid., UDEL * 1896 , ibid., UDEL * Notes: