Thursday, June 11, 2015

Descriptive adjectives and ebay.

What's ebay doing to the English language?
Recently, two advertisements were posted with the following pictures. 

Extremely good condition A-1
The camera pictured on the left  (click for larger pic) was described as "Extremely good condition".
I have no arguments with that, if anything it is an undersell. The owner has treasured this 30 year old camera and looked after it well.
Excellent condition A-1

In contrast, the camera pictured on the right  (click for larger pic) was described as "Excellent condition". Really? In what context can that be described as excellent condition?


Either the seller's day job is  as a real estate agent, or it is excellent as in "Excellent, it still looks like a camera after several hammer blows".