Pleonasms

I fell into a rabbit hole today when I encountered this word. No, this isn’t a new public health menace or something teenagers say to confuse anyone over thirty. Pleonasms are redundancies in phrases we use every day, like “tuna fish.” A tuna is always a fish (except when it’s a pun, as in “you can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish). But we’re so used to saying “tuna fish” that it almost sounds funny when we don’t. Another is “safe haven,” even though havens are safe places by definition. Ever heard of an unsafe haven? Maybe that deserted farmhouse that offers shelter from a sudden storm but turns out to be the lair of a serial killer, but then you’re in a horror novel and I don’t write those.

It’s hard to leave that type of pleonasm out of writing, especially dialog, because that’s how people talk. There are others, though, that I try to leave out, like “free gift” (mostly used in marketing), or “the ship itself,” or “in actual fact.” Writing becomes tighter and more powerful when the extra words are left out.

There’s a special place in perdition for “irregardless” and “inflammable.” “Regardless” is already “without regard;” adding “ir” to it doesn’t do anything for you. “Flammable” already means “easily catches fire.” No need for an extra “in.”

But I suppose the amusing bi-lingual pleonasms are here to stay. “The River Avon” is just saying “the river river,” since Avon is the Welsh word for river. And the “La Brea Tar Pits” means “the tar tar pits.”

Bonus points if you can guess what I was doing when I tumbled into this rabbit hole. Hint: it wasn’t writing or researching. I’ll give you a free ebook if you get it right.