Every now and then comes a word that is repeated so often it becomes embedded in our unconsciousness that we find ourselves using it again and again without giving too much thought to what it really means.

The word is “unprecedented”.

We’ve heard it used relentlessly and repetitively in the media in the past few weeks.

The Mumbai terror attacks were “unprecedented”. The airport closures in Thailand are “unprecedented”. The banking crisis is “unprecedented”. The death of a Wal-Mart employee after being trampled by Americans during the biggest sale day of the year is “unprecedented”.

It’s been used to describe the Icelandic economic crisis, the Zimbabwean debacle, the Nigerian incident in which 40 soldiers ran riot with their weapons and killed up to 400 innocent souls.

It’s also crept into the travel industry vocabulary. It was used to describe the decline in transaction volumes by GDSs, the axing of capacity by airlines worldwide, the grounding of planes globally as carriers bleed day after day.

AirAsia reporting losses for the first time in its history – unprecedented.

In fact, I’d dare to argue that it’s “unprecedented” the way the word is being used today.

So what does it really mean? According to Dictionary.com, “without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled: an unprecedented event.”

I suppose it is in some ways accurate to say what is happening right now at this time, at this moment is unprecedented.

For the generation among us that is reporting the news and making the news, it is the first time we’ve seen so many pins tumble at the same time.

Historians and those who make a living studying the history of our world, I am sure, would argue otherwise and they would find similar, isolated incidents in days gone by that were equally as cataclysmic and dramatic as those we have seen.

The Crusades must have been unprecedented, for instance. Ditto for the Roman Empire and its excesses, or the Spanish Inquisition, Boxer Rebellion, Opium Wars, to cite a few examples from my limited memory of history.

But I think no one would argue though that it is indeed unprecedented the manner in which we all know everything that’s taking place at the same time as everyone else – well, at least, that part of the world that is connected to the information superhighway, anyway.

It will be thus good news to those of us who have used the word “unprecedented” in recent weeks to know we stand in good company.

The word is also much used by famous people. For example, Katharine Graham, the powerhouse behind the Washington Post, said, “If we had failed to pursue the facts as far as they led, we would have denied the public any knowledge of an unprecedented scheme of political surveillance and sabotage.”

British broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, who wrote “Prince of Wales: A Biography”, said, “I had no expectation that the Prince would offer me the unprecedented and unfettered access to the original and entirely untapped sources on which this biography is based.”

Some words ring as true today as they did when they were uttered.

“The first thing you need to know, in order to establish some perspective and avoid panic, is that the violent government excesses we're seeing today are far from unprecedented.” - L. Neil Smith

It can be applied to marketing.

“What can we say about a marketing culture that so openly feeds and colludes with obsession? The Disney empire has developed this to an unprecedented degree of professionalism.” - Rowan Williams

Or art.

“A performance art piece is unprecedented. It is difficult to censor since it has a good possibility of never being done before.” - Jack Bowman

Or writing.

“I did not have one bad spell during writing – an unprecedented record.” - Zane Grey

Together with "unprecedented", you might add the word "toxic" for its over-use in the current global meltdown. The paragraph below from the Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation this week scores a double - both words in the same sentence.

"The potential Qantas deal adds to BA's complex web of other merger negotiations involving Iberia and American Airlines. Any or all of these deals are massive undertakings and are a direct response to the toxic environment airlines face with rising costs and falling revenues, but also the unprecedented opportunity to create a global carrier as ownership and control and access restrictions ease around the world."