Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Pleonasm


pleonasm \ˈplē-ə-ˌna-zəm\ noun: Use of more words than is semantically necessary (“With these very eyes I saw him do it,” “I ate a tuna fish sandwich”)

Etymology: Late Latin pleonasmus, from Greek pleonasmos, from pleonazein to be excessive, from pleiōn, pleōn more

Pleonasm sounds like ectoplasm. If pleonasm is a literary figure of speech and ectoplasm is a substance vomited by a medium in response to the presence of a spiritual entity, pleonasm should take on an additional sense: “the ectoplasm of dead poets, phantom playwrights and ghost writers.”