Tautophrase

A tautophrase is a phrase or sentence that tautologically defines a term by repeating that term. The word was coined in 2006 by William Safire in The New York Times.

Examples include:

• "Brexit means Brexit" (Theresa May)
• "Tomorrow is tomorrow" (Sophocles' Antigone)
• "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" (Gertrude Stein)
• ""
• ""
• ""
• "A win is a win"
• "A la guerre comme à la guerre" — A French phrase literally meaning "at war as at war", and figuratively roughly equivalent to the English phrase "All's fair in love and war"
• Qué será, será or Che será, será — English loan from Spanish and Italian respectively (although these phrases are ungrammatical in those languages), meaning "Whatever will be, will be."
• "Call a spade a spade"
• "When I fool around, I don't fool around."

See also

References

• Safire, William (2006). "On language: Tautophrases". The New York Times, May 7, 2006.

• Safire, William (2006). "Tautophrases: what they are". The New York Times, May 7, 2006.