Thursday, February 1, 2018

Pleonasm

New word with which I am unfamiliar.

Pleonasm. From Wikipedia:
(/ˈpliːənæzəm/; from Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλέον (pleon), meaning 'more, too much') is the use of more words or parts of words than are necessary or sufficient for clear expression: for example black darkness or burning fire. Such redundancy is, by traditional rhetorical criteria, a manifestation of tautology. However, pleonasm may also be used for emphasis, or because the phrase has already become established in a certain form.
The entry has an interesting discourse on the use and history of ploenasm.

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