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Among the antiquities of a great nation, its tombs always hold a foremost place.

Since foremost means "first in rank," how can something have a foremost place, and not the foremost place?

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    You might as well say there's something wrong with having *a leading position. This is just logic-chopping, not reflective of ordinary language use at all. And elative* isn't part of ordinary English either. – FumbleFingers Nov 14 '14 at 22:23
  • I tend to agree that "A foremost ..." usually sounds a little sour in my ears. However, if someone says "One of the foremost ..." then for some reason it's better. – Hot Licks Nov 14 '14 at 23:35

2 Answers2

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There may indeed be many 'foremost places'. Consider this crude graphic of a regiment of 800 men on the march:

     BACK                                                                       FRONT
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Not one but no less than ten men occupy a (not the) 'foremost place'.

StoneyB on hiatus
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Among the antiquities of a great nation, its tombs always hold a foremost place

Simply means that there is more than one foremost place among a nation's antiquities.

Among the antiquities of a great nation, its tombs always hold a foremost place--but so do its libraries.

There is the foremost place among a nation's antiquities for learning how its supreme rulers were arranged for the afterlife, namely, its tombs.

But there is also the foremost place among a nation's antiquities for collecting cuneiform samples, namely, its libraries.

Or consider:

Among a great nation's modernites, its rapid speed trains always hold a foremost place--but so do its shopping malls and hydroelectric plants.

There are different foremost places among a great nation's modernites.

pazzo
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