Thursday 29 January 2015

Unspotted

Unspotted: adjective. The word unspotted has several definitions, but the two major ones (free from spots and free from moral stain) are so commonly used that it is not necessary to explain them on this blog. The third meaning of the word unspotted, however, is irresistibly obscure. In this sense, someone or something unspotted has been spotted before but freed from this state. An unspotted dalmatian, for example, either had spots that disappeared, a bad moral reputation that was reversed or was spotted by someone but the person who had spotted it was hit by a memory-erasing laser beam and forgot all about having spotted a dalmatian, making it unspotted. When this is kept in mind, Mother Mary (the virgin unspotted) could either have had a stainless moral reputation, a stealthy way of moving or (the most probable meaning) absolutely perfect skin.

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