Tautologies and pleonasms

It is amazing how many tautologies we use every day. You only need to look carefully at the words, often so familiar to us that we never do examine them, to see that they are tautologies. Pleonasms are harder to spot, but Chas Jones provides a helpful list.

Tautology: Needless repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence.

Pleonasm: The use of more words than are necessary for the expression of an idea. A pleonasm consists of two concepts, usually two words, which makes one redundant. Some pleonastic expressions are tautologies.

But….

Tautologous expressions are often found in legal documents e.g. ‘aid and abet’, ‘will and testament’. Some scholars suggest this practice developed when Anglo-Norman included terms from Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French to make sure the meaning was clear. Now the words are ‘twinned’ and the terms sound normal.

Recognise any of these?

A large proportion of (many)

Absolutely essential

Absolutely necessary

Advance forward

Advance warning

Added bonus

Admission of responsibility (admit)

Affirmative yes

Aid and abet

Almost unique (Unique)

Alternative choice

Attach together

At this moment in time (now)

Basic essentials

By virtue of the fact that (because)

Close proximity

Close scrutiny

Collaborate together

Consensus of opinion

Combine together

Entirely eliminating

Exact replica

Exactly the same

Free gift

Future plans

In conjunction with (and)

In the absence of (without)

In the event that (if)

Join together

Joint collaboration

Lesbian woman

Leaves much to be desired (poor)

Made good their escape

Merge together

Minute detail

New innovation

On account of the fact that (because)

Oblong in shape

Patently obvious

Personal opinion

Plummet down

Prior experience

Placed under arrest

Put in an appearance

Razed to the ground

Revert back

Sahara desert (Sahara means desert)

Shorter in length

Surrounded on all sides

Successful achievement

Sudden impulse

Sum total

Technical jargon

Temporary reprieve

The ‘hoi polloi’ (hoi means ‘the’ in Greek)

Tiny speck

Top priority

Unexpected emergency

Unexpected surprise

Was of the opinion that (thought)

With the exception of

The words, very, totally and completely