The Brief: An absolute unit is something very large.

Bluesquiggle
DEEP DIVE

“In awe at the size of this lad. Absolute unit.”

This term comes from British slang. It became popular internationally online after it was used to describe Queen Elizabeth II’s managing director David Morgan-Hewitt. The term is sometimes used in good fun to describe things and animals but can be offensive when used to describe people.

There is a subreddit dedicated to absolute units with over 295,000 subscribers.

Grandma is the absolute unitifier from r/AbsoluteUnits

George Hackenschmidt – Creator of the bench press and the hack squat. from r/AbsoluteUnits

This backpack is an absolute unit from r/AbsoluteUnits