pleonasm

English

WOTD – 28 September 2015

Etymology

Learned borrowingfromLate Latinpleonasmus,fromAncient Greekπλεονασμός(pleonasmós),fromπλεονάζω(pleonázō,“to be superfluous”),fromπλείων(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(countableanduncountable,pluralpleonasms)

1. (uncountable,rhetoric)Redundancyin 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 ofpleonasm.

   • 1989,Harold Riley,The Making of Mark: An Exploration,Mercer University Press,page219:

     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 Neirynck²and 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 andpleonasmof my asseveration.

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

Coordinate terms

• ellipsis

Derived terms

• pleonasmic

Related terms

• circumlocution
• pleonastic

Translations

redundancy in wording

• Arabic:حَشْوm(ḥašw),إِطْنَاب(ar)m(ʔiṭnāb)
• Azerbaijani:pleonazm
• Belarusian:плеана́змm(pljeanázm)
• Catalan:pleonasmem
• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Chuế ngữ／Chuế ngữ(zh)(zhuìyǔ),Chuế từ／Chuế từ(zh)(zhuìcí),Chuế tự／Chuế tự(zhuìzì),Nhũng từ／Nhũng từ(zh)(rǒngcí),Nhũng ngữ／Nhũng ngữ(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:πλεονασμόςm(pleonasmós)

• Hungarian:pleonazmus(hu),szószaporítás(hu),szinonimahalmozás(hu)
• Ido:pleonasmo(io)
• Irish:iomarcaíocht focalf
• Italian:pleonasmo(it)m
• Japanese:Nhũng ngữ(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:плеона́змm(pleonázm)
• Welsh:gair llanwm

phrase involving pleonasm

• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Chuế ngữ／Chuế ngữ(zh)(zhuìyǔ),Chuế từ／Chuế từ(zh)(zhuìcí),Chuế tự／Chuế tự(zhuìzì),Nhũng từ／Nhũng từ(zh)(rǒngcí),Nhũng ngữ／Nhũng ngữ(zh)(rǒngyǔ)

• Danish:pleonasmec,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:плеона́змm(pleonázm)

See also

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

Further reading

• “pleonasm”,inOneLook Dictionary Search.
• pleonasmon Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• neoplasm,planemos

Romanian

Etymology

BorrowedfromFrenchpléonasme.

Noun

pleonasmn(pluralpleonasme)

1. pleonasm

Declension

Declension ofpleonasm

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un)pleonasm	pleonasmul	(niște)pleonasme	pleonasmele
genitive/dative	(unui)pleonasm	pleonasmului	(unor)pleonasme	pleonasmelor
vocative	pleonasmule		pleonasmelor