{"id":2112,"date":"2016-01-26T14:38:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T20:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:15:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T17:15:02","slug":"pleonisms-are-a-bit-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/definitions\/pleonisms-are-a-bit-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Pleonasms Are a Bit Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

The term pleonasm<\/em> comes from pleonazein<\/em>, a Greek word that means \u201cmore than enough.\u201d When you use a pleonasm, you are repeating yourself.<\/p>\n

The jolly man was happy<\/em> is a pleonasm: The man was happy<\/em> says the same thing without the unnecessary addition of \u201cjolly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serious writers want to make their point with a minimum of fuss and clutter. Nothing says fuss and clutter like an ill-advised pleonasm, which can come across as long-winded, pompous, ignorant, laughable, or any combination thereof.<\/p>\n

Some pleonasms are obvious (true fact<\/em>, free gift<\/em>), others are less noticeable (pick and choose<\/em>, young boy<\/em>). They hide in our writing, then jump out and jeer at us for not catching them when we had the chance.<\/p>\n

Here is a selection of pleonasms from a variety of sources:<\/p>\n

PIN number<\/strong>\u00a0 PIN is an acronym for \u201cpersonal identification number.\u201d So a PIN number is a personal identification number number.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoman arrested after <\/strong>verbal argument\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 The creator of this headline forgot that all arguments are verbal.<\/p>\n

\u201cGED graduation begins with unexpected surprise\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 Is it a surprise if it\u2019s expected?<\/p>\n

\u201cTips from a <\/strong>self-confessed<\/strong> project management nerd\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>Too bad the author of this post wasn\u2019t also a language nerd: self-confessed<\/em> is a classic pleonasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to decide <\/strong>whether or not<\/strong> someone\u2019s worth dating\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>Delete \u201cor not\u201d and you\u2019ve said the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo blind he can\u2019t see\u201d\u00a0<\/strong> This is a line from \u201cDrink Up and Go Home,\u201d a country song from the fifties. It\u2019s supposed to be poignant, but the pleonasm is a distraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m told you are a very clever genius\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 Attributed to Samuel Goldwyn, American movie mogul (1879-1974).<\/p>\n

Some pleonasms are used intentionally, for emphasis. An exasperated mother tells her unruly child, \u201cNever,\u00a0ever <\/em>do that again!\u201d Few parents would second-guess that \u201cever<\/em>.\u201d A jilted lover writes to his sweetheart that she has left him \u201cutterly devastated.\u201d The poor man is swept up in the trauma and drama of rejection. Who would be so peevish as to inform him that, technically, \u201cdevastated\u201d by itself gets the point across?<\/p>\n

In A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage\u00a0<\/em>Cornelia and Bergen Evans defend purposeful pleonasms: \u201cA man who never said an unnecessary word would say very little during a long life and would not be pleasant company \u2026 In writing, as in conversation, an economical use of words is not always what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, we think the Evanses would agree that a mindless redundancy is not ever what we want.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sentences below contain pleonasms. Which words or phrases could be removed with no change in meaning? (Example: the word true<\/em> in true fact<\/em> is superfluous.) Our answers are below.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Too late the soldiers realized that they were surrounded on all sides.<\/li>\n
  2. Randy wore a big smile on his face.<\/li>\n
  3. When we saw the final results, we were all in shock.<\/li>\n
  4. We were given a grand tour of the capitol building.<\/li>\n
  5. Rachelle has been appointed to the post of director of information.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. on all sides<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. on his face<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. final<\/em><\/li>\n
    4. building<\/em><\/li>\n
    5. to the post of<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The term pleonasm comes from pleonazein, a Greek word that means \u201cmore than enough.\u201d When you use a pleonasm, you are repeating yourself. The jolly man was happy is a pleonasm: The man was happy says the same thing without the unnecessary addition of \u201cjolly.\u201d Serious writers want to make their point with a minimum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,10,12,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abbreviations","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-vocabulary"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}