"First and Only"

Bill Palmer w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET
Sat Aug 29 14:56:46 UTC 2009


In today's NY Times, Leon Hoffman writes "Sigmund Freud arrived in Hoboken, N.J., 100 years ago today on his *first and only* visit to the United States"

If there is no second time, can there be a first?  Is an ordinal number ordinal, if there is no order?  Why not omit the "first and"?

Bill Palmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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