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I'm not even sure if there is a word for this. My partner says there is but I can't find it anywhere.

The example I'm giving is garlic aioli. The word aioli is a Mediterranean garlic and olive oil sauce, so why do they put garlic in front of the word aioli? It's like saying garlic, garlic and olive oil sauce.

Another example is Loch Ness lake, because apparently loch means lake in Scottish, it's like saying lake-Ness lake.

Anyways, I dunno if that makes much sense at all. Is there a word for that?

Tushar Raj
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Shannon Louise
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2 Answers2

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The word you want is pleonasm:

Pleonasm (/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: examples are black darkness, burning fire. Such redundancy is, by traditional rhetorical criteria, a manifestation of tautology. That being said, people may use a pleonasm for emphasis or because the phrase has already become established in a certain form.

A context-relevant excerpt from the article body:

Redundancies sometimes take the form of foreign words whose meaning is repeated in the context:

  • "We went to the El Restaurante restaurant."
  • "The La Brea tar pits are fascinating."
  • "Roast beef served with au jus sauce."
  • "Please R.S.V.P."
  • "The Schwarzwald Forest is deep and dark."
  • "The Drakensberg Mountains are in South Africa."

At chux's request, here are some examples without foreign phrases, courtesy of Mental Floss:

  • Nape of the neck
  • Gnashing of teeth
  • False pretense
  • Safe haven
  • Bleary-eyed
  • Veer off course

If the term is too technical for you, you could simply say that saying Loch Ness lake is redundant.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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Tushar Raj
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    Fine. I'll bite. PIN Number is a pleonasm: a redundant acronym. See the linked Wikipedia page. Also, It is possible for a word/phrase to be tautologous while being a pleonasm. The two aren't mutually exclusive. – Tushar Raj Jan 23 '17 at 11:26
  • From the 'redundant' link in your post - *Redundancy typically takes the form of tautology... A more general classification of redundancy is pleonasm*. Tautology is narrowly defined and most precisely answers the OP. Pleonasm, even though it is often used to mean tautology actually has a broader, more catch-all meaning. – Dan Jan 23 '17 at 11:51
  • @Dan: (A)Your previous comment is an indictment of redundancy; not ploeonasm (B) Your ellipsis is misleading; the 'more general classification' is very likely a reference to 'RAS' syndrome in the previous para, not to 'redundancy' two paras above, which arguably isn't a classification at all (C) Seeing as tautology has all sorts of other meanings inside and outside the field of language, I'd say pleonasm is the narrow one here. However, everyone is free to choose whatever term they prefer. They're both right. – Tushar Raj Jan 23 '17 at 12:11
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    I'm a fan of "ATM Machine", myself. – Ghotir Jan 23 '17 at 18:44
  • @Ghotir: Ah. The old RAS syndrome! – Tushar Raj Jan 23 '17 at 18:46
  • Considering this in an English site, examples that do not rely on a 2nd language would be more interesting. – chux - Reinstate Monica Jan 23 '17 at 18:51
  • @chux See edit. Went with the foreign ones earlier as those were what the OP mentioned. – Tushar Raj Jan 23 '17 at 19:01
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    And nobody mentioned "the Los Angeles Angels"? – Jeutnarg Jan 23 '17 at 19:21
  • @Ghotir LED diode, for that sake. – yo' Jan 23 '17 at 21:09
  • @yo' Or LED light, to get tricky. – JAB Jan 24 '17 at 00:49
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    In a similar vein, “tad bit” is one of my pet peeves. – Jon Purdy Jan 24 '17 at 01:15
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    I don't know about other countries but in the UK people often refer to the Vehicle Identification Number of a car as its VIN Number. And VINs are older that PINs. – BoldBen Jan 24 '17 at 01:38
  • In Australia, we have koalas and platypuses. In America, people often call them koala bears and duck-billed platypuses respectively, which is inaccurate in both cases. Koalas are marsupials, so are not related to bears (which are placentals) apart from both being mammals. Platypuses are monotremes which are also mammals, so they can't have an avian beak. There is also only one species of animal called "platypus" so there's no need to try to distinguish them further. – CJ Dennis Jan 24 '17 at 02:11
  • Free gift still persists. – verbose Jan 24 '17 at 10:19
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    My personal favorite/pet peeve: "Chai tea." – JKubecki Jan 25 '17 at 18:24
  • @Jeutnarg: I wonder at what point we stop considering the use of a pleonasm as a mistake, in the case where avoiding the pleonasm introduces ambiguity. If the addition of the so-called pleonasm reduces ambiguity, then it isn't an irrelevant addition, and imo not a pleonasm. "The Los Angeles Angels" (the team) differentiates itself from "Los Angeles" (the city). – Flater Jul 04 '17 at 08:48
  • Some terms use this to ensure that all people understood the result. For example "without let or hindrance", where "let" means "hindrance" just as it still does in tennis. – Alchymist Aug 22 '19 at 14:53
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Tautology - Unnecessary repetition, usually in close proximity, of the same word, phrase, idea, argument, etc. The saying of the same thing twice in different words generally considered to be a fault of style (OED) although it can be used as a literary device.

Consider PIN...

"PIN number" is tautologous - it repeats "number" next to the initial N, which means "number".

"My PIN number that I use to identify my card with is on this piece of paper" - that I use to identify my card with is also tautologous.

When 'the same thing' is repeated in different languages (eg the examples in the OP) - Loch Ness Lake, La Brea Tar Pits, Drankensberg Mountains, Schwarzwald Forest - or, involves unfamiliar jargon - DVD disk, ISBN number - the tautology may not be redundant (superfluous, excessive; surplus; unnecessary (OED)), but in fact necessary for clarity (until such time as speaker and spoken-to can understand the unfamiliar language).

Tautology is a kind of pleonasm which is when more words are used in a sentence or clause than are necessary for clear expression (either as a fault of style, or as a rhetorical figure used for emphasis or clarity). For example,

Jill saw the building burning down with her own eyes. (She must have seen it with her own eyes).

The vote was completely and totally unanimous. (A unanimous vote cannot be anything but complete and total).

Although tautology and pleonasm are closely related, they are not synonyms. A tautology is a kind of pleonasm by definition. The reverse is not the case.

(Note that this answer refers to tautology in its original, rhetorical sense. In the early twentieth century philosophers Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein used the term tautology to describe a formula of the propositional calculus which is true under every assignment of truth or falsehood to its propositional letters, for example ‘If p and q then p’. In this context it is also used more widely to describe any proposition which is true because of its logical form rather than its content (OED)).

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Dan
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    Similar to the warning given by @TusharRaj my familiarity with this word relates to mathematical logic. In that context it has a related but different meaning that generally lacks negative connotation. I expect many people from a mathematical or software background would only be familiar with the definition from logic. The term "rhetorical tautology" from the wikipedia article eliminates ambiguity. – JimmyJames Jan 23 '17 at 17:44
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    @Dan Here is a footnote from R. Dawkins's The Ancestor's Tale "Gonwanaland is a tautology, because vana in Sanskrit means land (actually forest.) I shall not use it." ...(From The Elephant Bird's Tale) – Airymouse Jan 24 '17 at 01:55
  • PIN number has been asked before: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/14868/pin-number-why-do-we-say-it – Pablo Straub Jan 25 '17 at 01:21
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    Thankyou all very much! And I'm getting a good laugh out of the other examples too – Shannon Louise Feb 03 '17 at 12:59