What are some redundant terms that occur frequently (like "ABM missile")?
language/english/meaning/pleonasm Added material
Problem
What are some redundant terms that occur frequently (like "ABM missile")?
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11.5% APR (although "APR" means that interest is charged on the balance only)
ABM missile
ABS system
AC current
ACT test
AMOCO Oil Co.
APL programming language
ATM machine
BASIC Code
BBS System
CAD design
CNN news network
DC current
DMZ zone
DOS operating system
GMT time
Geirangerfjorden (Fjord Fjord Fjord)
HIV virus
ISBN number
ISDN network
LCD display
LED diode
MIDI Interface
Mount Fujiyama (Mount Mountain)
NATO organization
NFS File System
PIN number
RAM (or ROM) memory
Rio Grande River (Big River River)
SALT talks or SALT treaty
SAT test
SCSI Interface
SEATO organization
START talks or START treaty
The La Brea Tar Pits (The The Tar Tar Pits)
The Los Altos Hills (The The Hills Hills)
VIN number
floccinoccinihlipilification (from 4 latin words meaning "nothing")
the hoi polloi (the the many)
hot water heater
Breedon-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire (translates as "Hillhill-on-the-hill"
using two different Celtic words - modern Welsh "Bryn" and Gaelic "Du'n"
and one English one).
Additional material
[ Editor: from a 1994 alt.usage.english thread, "the Department of Redundancy Department", in which "The La Brea Tar Pit", the "Great Sahara Desert" and "Mount Fujiyama" had been offered: ] > Just southeast of Boulder, Colorado, is a flat-topped hill called > "Table Mesa". -- John Woolley <jww@evolving.com> And another: a village in Cumbria, UK, called "Torpenhow" [= "Hillhillhill"]. I've read there's a Torpenhow Hill nearby, but that may be apocryphal. -- Ray Girvan <rgirvan@cix.compulink.co.uk> [ Editor: from a 1994 rec.puzzles thread on the most common city name, where SPRINGFIELD had been proposed: ] Common enough, but I bet it isn't the most common, (at least if you include towns as well). Then, in the various local languages, I bet the winner by far and away is NEWTOWN ! Especially if you include variants such as Newton, Naples (Neapolis), and even Carthage, which I've read is Phoenician for New Town. This last one gives us a (probably not unique!) double barrelled "NewNewTown", Carthago Nova, in Spain ! (Or do I mean Cartagena Nueva... ?) -- Bill Taylor <wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz>