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Spanish Word of the Day
Friday May 9, 2008
redundancia, noun:
tautology
Here’s a ‘false friend’ whose meaning has very little connection with its English cousin ‘redundancy’.
You can use redundancia when commenting on the use of language, especially when repeating a word you’ve already used:
Las modelos son hoy el modelo de estas jóvenes, valga la redundancia, ...
Nowadays models are the model, pardon the repetition, for these young women...
If an expression says the same thing twice, it’s also una redundancia - a tautology.
Se ha dicho que la expresión persona human es una redundancia.
It’s been said that the phrase ‘persona humana’ is a tautology.
If something is unnecessary, it can also be described as una redundancia, something superfluous:
Este programa televisivo es una redundancia.
This TV programme is superfluous.
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