top | item 46403282

(no title)

Jakob | 2 months ago

Yes. There are lots around; whenever the original word becomes too short for the importance people want to give it.

Tuna fish, chai tea, Enter the room -> enter “into” the room, French: hui (today) -> aujourd’hui (day of today)

Keyword: pleonasm

discuss

order

umanwizard|2 months ago

I'm sure I've even heard French people say "au jour d'aujourd'hui"

teapot7|2 months ago

I'm pretty sure I've seen that one in a list, by a French person, of things they wish other people wouldn't say!

simgt|2 months ago

Yes, we had an epidemic of that about 10 years ago. It was everywhere. Thankfully it's mostly gone now and we're back to "aujourd'hui".

xigoi|2 months ago

Also French: je ne sais (I don’t know) → je ne sais pas (I don’t know a step)

Jakob|2 months ago

And recently even dropping the negation itself while keeping the meaning: “je sais pas”

I never thought about that. Interesting. This negation related cycle is apparently called Jespersen’s cycle and happens in many languages. The English equivalent

I say not -> I “do” not say -> I don’t say. -> ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jespersen%27s_cycle