Silly tautologies (part 6)

I'm absolutely certain, one hundred percent sure, without a doubt that a tautology could be described as 'needless repetition'. In fact I used a tautology right there in my opening sentence!

Or if you were more technically minded, you might describe a tautology as a 'repetition of truth', but that's basically the same thing.

New inovations.

Anyway, rather conveniently, tautologies are the subject of this week's blog post.

1) New innovation

New innovations are so much better than old innovations!

To be serious for a brief moment, an innovation is a fresh concept or a new idea, so you can't have an old innovation.

And that leads us into the next tautology...

2) Brief moment

A moment is by definition brief. You can't have a long moment. If it was long, it wouldn't be a moment!

So when you say a 'brief moment', you're basically saying a 'short short period of time'. Or a 'brief period of time which was brief'. It's like saying a small atom.

3) Round circle

A square circle.

I remember when discussing a video game on reddit, someone once asked, "What's the round circle at the bottom right corner of the screen?"

The round circle? I'm glad you clarified that the circle was round. I mean, it's very important to differentiate between round circles and the many square circles and triangular circles - or round squares and round triangles, for that matter - that you come across.

4) Free gift

Are there any other types of gift? Surely all gifts are free.

Charles: "Hi, Ed, I got you this gift for your birthday."
Editor: "A gift? That's brilliant! Thank you!"

Charles: "No problem. Here's your gift. That'll be twenty pounds, please."

If you have to pay for it, then it's not a gift!

A big river, pictured yesterday.

5) Rio Grande River

'Rio Grande' means 'big river' in Spanish*, so the Rio Grande River is the big river river!

* Or to translate it literally, it means River Big, because Spanish people talk back to front. Or if you're Spanish, English people talk back to front!

6) Reiterate

You may be wondering how reiterate can possibly be a tautology. It's only one word, so surely it can't be a tautology.

However, 'iterate' means to repeat, so there's no need to add the 're' at the start of the word. You're just repeating yourself. Or to put it another way, you're reiterating! In more ways than one!

7) Late because of lateness

Top tip: If you're late because your train is delayed, then when it finally
arrives, get on the train rather than staring at your watch on the platform.

Let's end things with a real life example that I personally* experienced.

One of the most pointless announcements I've ever heard in my life was an announcement over my local subway system announcing that there were delays to the metro service. The explanation for the delays was as follows:

"Metro would like to apologise for the delay to your service today. This is due to late running trains."

Er ... what? The trains are late because they're running late!?

Ah! That explains it! The trains are late because they're late! Thank you for the detailed explanation!

* Editor's note: "Charles, saying 'I personally' is also a tautology. You don't need to say both 'I' and 'personally' because if you say 'I' then you're obviously talking about yourself!"
Charles: "Oh, well, er ...yes, well spotted! But you see, that was a deliberate bonus tautology for the readers, because I'm such a generous kind of guy." **shifty eyes**

You can find even more tautologies in my previous blog posts below:
Silly tautologies (part 4)
Silly tautologies (part 5)

Editor's note: "More blog posts on the same subject? You could say that's yet another tautology!"
Charles: "While admittedly, my blog posts aren't essential, I nevertheless think it's a bit harsh to describe them as 'needless' repetition."