[rbruce1314]

As a Brit and an ex- (grammar school) teacher I've been watching this thread drift with some fun! HarryT is also a brit, so, although I'm not sure about his confusion with 'second-to-last', let me demonstrate the answer with my favourite "confuser", 'second to none'.

One of my brighter pupils always seemed to react strongly when I used the above phrase and eventually he came to me after a lesson and asked why I was being so insulting about "whateveritwas" I was talking about.
On asking him to explain, he drew me a chart (he was maths btw) with the following:

All > most > lots > some > few > none.

- - - - then he added 'second to none' to the right of the lot!!! He really thought that 'second to none' meant 'worse than none' (try it yourselves with "second-to nothing" and see what I mean......)

English language is not for the unwary, even the indigenous - no wonder visitors have problems explaining themselves: who knows what other 'direct-opposite' confusions there are - ones we would never even have thought of (viz my example above).

Oh well, back to the topic.....