Not necessarily the last word

Add comment December 17th, 2008

A prisoner’s “last meal” could just mean the most recent one, unless that inmate is on death row.

You should be careful with the word “last,” because it can convey a sense of finality you don’t intend. For example, “In his last speech, the president said he was sorry.”

Does that mean the president won’t be giving any more speeches, or was it just his most recent one?

As an adjective, “last” can mean “latest” or “directly before the present,” as in “We flew to Paris last month.” And as an adverb it can mean “most recently,” as in “I last had pie on Thanksgiving.”

It’s sometimes safer to substitute “latest” or “past” for “last,” although this sensitivity can be taken too far. Take, for example, the sentence “He was head of Chicago Public Schools for the past seven years.” Some usage experts would say that if you used “last” instead of “past,” someone might think you were implying that time was about to end.

If that were the case, I would hope you would use a less subtle way to tell me.

Nevertheless, if there’s a legitimate concern about such misinterpretation, by all means don’t use “last.”

Also, watch for “last” and “past” redundancies. In most constructions such as “She had surgery last Thursday,” you don’t need “last” because the verb (”had”) is in the past tense.

And beware nouns that have an inherent “pastness.” “Past history” and “past experience,” for instance, are redundant.