'Best' means who excelled the most. So the best loser is the loser who excelled the most. This could be the loser who did the competition the best (i.e. second place). This is, after all, what the phrase 'best loser' is understood to mean.
But what if the thing the best loser excells in is at losing? Which loser lost the best. That is, out of all competitors, who did the worst? This would be the loser who came in last place.
(In thoroughness, this question isn't an either/or if there are two competitors because whoever comes in second place also comes in last place.)
I in no way expect the last place definition to gain traction. But from a logical and/or linguistic perspective, it's interesting to see where possible definitions can take you.
No comments:
Post a Comment