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Readers responses to
call for tautologies

This article appeared in the Spring 2003 edition of Short Words, the newsletter of Tim Albert Training. It was written by Tim Albert.

A reader comments...

Tortuous tautologies

David Pencheon suggested a great moanfest on this topic. Readers responded well

What an irritated lot readers of Short Words turned out to be.

Our appeal for tautologies struck a chord with many of you, particularly those working for the NHS.

Some phrases, such as past history and planning ahead were suggested by more than one person. However, as Christina Martin pointed out, 'planning with hindsight - or indeed in reverse - is a wonderfully useful discipline! You just do something and then write the plan afterwards'.

Others clearly wanted to unburden themselves of long lists. Tara Beeton's contributions included end result, close scrutiny, complete transformation, join together and minute detail.

Loren Grant from South Manchester Primary Care Trust, contributed pre-book and (even better) pre-book in advance, added bonus and free gift.

Some readers weren't quite sure about whether their pet hates were tautologies. 'I am not sure whether close proximity is strictly a tautology or just verbosity' wrote Colin Drummond, editorial manager of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 'Either way, I can't understand why it isn't frowned upon.
'My Concise Oxford Dictionary (ninth edition) defines proximity as 'nearness in space or time' and even gives as an example 'sat in close proximity to them', which tends to make my specs steam over. Surely "sat close to them" is better!'

Graeme Smith from the Pharmaceutical Journal sent in an excellent example of a tautological sentence: 'Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors selectively inhibit the reuptake of serotonin.' 'This was expunged just in time!', he adds.

Some words we use unquestioningly all the time. But, as Marilyn Lansley pointed out that, 'strictly speaking, eyesight must be tautological unless we are having to distinguish it from second sight or hindsight ' She also contributed yellow jaundice' as opposed, I guess, to the purple or the green variety'.

It's not only the health services, however. Lorna Duckworth pointed out that The Guardian advertised for a subeditor on its comment pages, handling the copy of its leader writers. The advert, which appeared in the job pages of the media section, talked about the main crux of the job.

The final word should go to Denys Wheatley: 'Never ever talk to me about tautologies, otherwise I shall hear the same old stories over and over again'.

tautology n. (pl -ies) 1. The saying of the same thing twice over in different words, esp. as a fault of style (Concise Oxford Dictionary, ninth edition).