Words & WritingGreek → English
Pleonasm
/ˈpliːənæzəm/noun
The use of more words than the sense needs, as in free gift or advance planning.
The Greek roots
πλεονασμός
pleonasmós
excess, superfluity
Literally: “a having-more”
Follow a root:πλεονασμός1 word
The story of the word
The Greek rhetoricians treated it as a fault to be named and avoided, from πλέον, more, the same comparative behind pleonectic greed. Not every pleonasm is a mistake: Greek and Latin both used doubled negatives for emphasis, and English tolerates safe haven without complaint. Its opposite in the rhetorical handbooks is ellipsis, saying too little.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
plethorapleonasticplus
In a sentence
The editor circled the pleonasm and wrote one word in the margin: gift.