What is the comparative degree of "last"?
I have searched a lot on Google but have not been able to find the answer.
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1consider migrating this to ell? – Omega Krypton Dec 25 '18 at 08:45
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3Closely related: Late “latter” last – Mari-Lou A Dec 25 '18 at 08:50
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1I think that phrases such as second last and third last could function as comparatives in this case. – Jason Bassford Dec 25 '18 at 08:51
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1I see, it's you. Where did you find the explanation in your answer? P.S. You can post an answer to your own question, but please attribute it to the source. – Mari-Lou A Dec 25 '18 at 10:10
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3Last is already a superlative (notice the -st). So it doesn't have a comparative. – John Lawler Apr 07 '22 at 19:15
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How about penultimate? – Hot Licks Nov 05 '22 at 12:58
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"Last" is an adjective that has no comparative. superlative forms as last already has the meaning of the most bottom, behind, etc.
Justin
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Omega Krypton
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I am bit confused whether it's positive and comparative are Late and Latter. – Saifullah Dec 25 '18 at 08:53
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2This answer is incorrect. Last is a superlative that does have a corresponding comparative degree (latter) and also arguably a positive degree (late). There are very few superlatives in English that do not have corresponding comparatives (first, utmost, etc.). – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 25 '18 at 11:11
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1yes, but its late, latter, latest. the OP is asking about "last", which i believe is another issue – Omega Krypton Dec 25 '18 at 11:13
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3Last is an old superlative. Now late has regularized, and last has changed its meaning to the end of a sequence. You can go in the other way -- next-to-last -- but that's not comparative. The same thing happened to the old nigh - near - next, but now nigh is archaic and near has regularized into near -nearer - nearest. Happens all the time. – John Lawler Apr 07 '22 at 19:19
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The comparative form of the superlative "last" is "latter". It is not to be confused with "later", the comparative of the positive adjective "late".
Arguably, the positive (that is, non-comparative, non-superlative) of "last" is the suppletive "one", which it shares with "first" and "former" in their shared role of list demarcation.
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