pleonasm

English

WOTD – 28 September 2015

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin pleonasmus, from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλεονάζω (pleonázō, “to be superfluous”), from πλείων (pleíōn, “more”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpliː.əˌnæz.əm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

Examples
ATM machine The two of them are both the same. killed dead UPC church [United Pentecostal Church]

pleonasm (countable and uncountable, plural pleonasms)

1. (uncountable, rhetoric) Redundancy in wording.
   • 1939, John Nicholas Hritzu, The Style of the Letters of St. Jerome, Catholic University of America Press, page 5:

     St. Jerome and St. Augustine are both sparing in the employment of the device of pleonasm.

   • 1989, Harold Riley, The Making of Mark: An Exploration, Mercer University Press, page 219:

     Indeed, pleonasm, the use of superfluous or redundant words, is only part of the broader features of that style, the expressions of which have been so thoroughly analyzed by Franz Neirynck² and which for convenience will here be referred to as "dualisms."

   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:

     My salvation is in my Saviour who saveth me hence the redundancy and pleonasm of my asseveration.

2. (countable) A phrase involving pleonasm; a phrase containing one or more words which are redundant because their meaning is expressed elsewhere in the phrase.

Coordinate terms

• ellipsis

Derived terms

• pleonasmic

Related terms

• circumlocution
• pleonastic

Translations

redundancy in wording

• Arabic: حَشْو m (ḥašw), إِطْنَاب (ar) m (ʔiṭnāb)
• Azerbaijani: pleonazm
• Belarusian: плеана́зм m (pljeanázm)
• Catalan: pleonasme m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 贅語／赘语 (zh) (zhuìyǔ), 贅詞／赘词 (zh) (zhuìcí), 贅字／赘字 (zhuìzì), 冗詞／冗词 (zh) (rǒngcí), 冗語／冗语 (zh) (rǒngyǔ)

• Czech: pleonasmus (cs) m
• Dutch: pleonasme (nl) n
• Esperanto: pleonasmo (eo)
• Finnish: pleonasmi (fi)
• French: pléonasme (fr) m
• German: Pleonasmus (de) m
• Greek: πλεονασμός (el) m (pleonasmós)

  Ancient: πλεονασμός m (pleonasmós)

• Hungarian: pleonazmus (hu), szószaporítás (hu), szinonimahalmozás (hu)
• Ido: pleonasmo (io)
• Irish: iomarcaíocht focal f
• Italian: pleonasmo (it) m
• Japanese: 冗語 (じょうご, jōgo)
• Kazakh: плеоназм (pleonazm)
• Kyrgyz: плеоназм (pleonazm)
• Latin: pleonasmos (la) m, pleonasmus (la) m
• Polish: pleonazm (pl)
• Portuguese: pleonasmo (pt) m
• Russian: плеона́зм (ru) m (pleonázm)
• Serbo-Croatian: плеоназам, pleonazam (sh)
• Spanish: pleonasmo (es) m
• Swedish: pleonasm (sv) c
• Tagalog: panigib
• Turkish: pleonazm, laf kalabalığı, haşiv (tr), doldurma (tr)
• Ukrainian: плеона́зм m (pleonázm)
• Welsh: gair llanw m

phrase involving pleonasm

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 贅語／赘语 (zh) (zhuìyǔ), 贅詞／赘词 (zh) (zhuìcí), 贅字／赘字 (zhuìzì), 冗詞／冗词 (zh) (rǒngcí), 冗語／冗语 (zh) (rǒngyǔ)

• Danish: pleonasme c, dobbeltkonfekt (da) c
• Dutch: pleonasme (nl) n
• Esperanto: pleonasmo (eo)
• Finnish: pleonasmi (fi)
• French: pléonasme (fr) m
• Greek: πλεονασμός (el) m (pleonasmós)
• Hungarian: pleonazmus (hu), szószaporítás (hu), szinonimahalmozás (hu)
• Polish: pleonazm (pl) m
• Romanian: pleonasm (ro) n
• Swedish: pleonasm (sv) c
• Turkish: pleonazm, doldurma (tr), haşiv (tr)
• Ukrainian: плеона́зм m (pleonázm)

See also

• auxesis
• battology
• perissology
• tautology
• English pleonastic compounds
• Pleonastic compounds by language

Further reading

• “pleonasm”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• pleonasm on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• neoplasm, planemos

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French pléonasme.

Noun

pleonasm n (plural pleonasme)

1. pleonasm

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	pleonasm	pleonasmul		pleonasme	pleonasmele
genitive-dative	pleonasm	pleonasmului		pleonasme	pleonasmelor
vocative	pleonasmule			pleonasmelor