That's IT! The DH and I were trying to remember this word the whole week...
Polydundant describes those phrases that are redundant because the words in the phrase mean the same thing, but are in different languages. (I first heard the word from the Dictionary Evangelist, which she gathered at the Pop!Tech conference. Her example was Panera Bread Company, which of course means Bread Bread Company.) My favorite example is Agora Market (located on Lyndale and Franklin in Minneapolis). (Agora is a greek marketplace.)
But if you don't want to be trendy, you can simply refer to these types of phrases in the traditional way -- as etymologically redundant expressions.
5 comments:
that is awesome, these phrases always annoy me and now there is a word to describe them.
there is also a company called: BioLife (life life)
and my favorite professor hates the usage of co-conspirators because the usage of 'con' means together so there needs to be more than one.
so thanks kat for giving me another word that will help me to appear smarter than my sister :)
Hee hee!
LifeLife. Good point about the co-conspirators, too. I had never thought about that! Your prof will LOVE the word polydundant!
"The La Brea Tar Pits" has always made me laugh, but I never knew there was such a word. By the way, did you know that now if you google "polydundant" you're one of the top hits?
I wonder if I'll stay one of the top hits as the word takes off. Which I know it will. :)
I will do everything in my power to make it so
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