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Comment by Jakob

7 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

6 comments

Jakob

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School-Cotton  7 months ago

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

  • teapot7  7 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  7 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  7 months ago

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

  • Jakob  7 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