[Vocabulary] hardly that of

[Silverobama]

Hi,

What does "hardly that of" mean here?


For all the magnitude of his achievement, his fame is hardly that of Hillary.


Thanks a lot


If the sentence sounds weird, please let me know.

 

[Route21]

Hi Silverobama

You've touched on an interesting word, which is treated, in some contexts, as a negative word and in others not. See the usage note in the following dictionary definition:
hardly - definition of hardly by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

In your example, it means that, despite the magnitude of his achievements, he has not achieved anything approaching the fame of Hillary [Clinton?].

Hope this helps
R21

 

[JMurray]

As a New Zealander I assumed it refers to Sir Edmund Hillary, who knows? Route21's definition is right of course.
As for your second question, I think it "sounds" OK in that it wouldn't jar for me in conversation. However, it does feel too compressed in written form. I would prefer:
"For all the magnitude of his achievement, his fame hardly matches/approaches that of Hillary".

not a teacher