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HSS Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

A is Nothing If Not B

Could anyone please help me see how "A is nothing if not B" comes to mean "It is a conspicuous trait of A's that A is B"?

ex) She is nothing if not persistent.
The book is nothing if not full of difficult words.
He is nothing if not an incorrigible ignoramus.

Thanks,

Hiro
  

Top answer

>>She is nothing if not persistent. I means that persistent is her strongest or most noticeable characteristic. Apparently the idea is that if someone were unwilling to agree to her being persistent, they would be unwilling to agree to anything else.

— Jemaasjr

  • >>She is nothing if not persistent.
  • I means that persistent is her strongest or most noticeable characteristic.
  • Apparently the idea is that if someone were unwilling to agree to her being persistent, they would be unwilling to agree to anything else.
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3 Answers
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>>She is nothing if not persistent.

I means that persistent is her strongest or most noticeable characteristic.

Apparently the idea is that if someone were unwilling to agree to her being persistent, they would be unwilling to agree to anything else.
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Thanks, jemaasjr.

Do the other two example sentences sound idiomatic?

Hiro
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Two things

I don't like this whole "nothing if not" business and I never use it.

But if you want to, all your examples do sound like ordinary English to me. So, you know, go ahead if it pleases you.
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