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- Here in the UK if you find out someone drives an automatic you smile, nod, and then shun them from society2012/04/18
- Probably common knowledge, but I've just discovered that almost all the cars in the US are automatics. Seriously? What a ridiculous country.2012/04/18
- Please do not humiliate decapitated Daleks:
http://t.co/7GUfBwYH2012/04/18 - What's a nice girl like you doing in a plaice like this?2012/04/18
- Hmm, I'd like more followers. What's the best way to get my existing ones to breed?2012/04/18
Tautology is a statement that just means true such as “life is life” ATM machine and PIN number are redundancies where the same word is repeated redundantly.
From dictionary.com: “needless repetition of an idea, esp. in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman.””
Doctor Who had an episode with an “ATMOS System”, and the whiny, child genius who developed it kept referring to that expression as a tautology because the S stood for system.
I remember that dr who!!! thats when me man david was in it lol but yeah that kid was annoying
Using acronyms in this way is in fact known as Redundant Acronym Syndrome, or RAS Syndrome for short.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome
This thread has been reported to the Department of Redundancy Department
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Redundancy
grammarnazi’s right in the strictest sense of the words. A good way to think of “tautology” is that it means “something that is always true”. “Widow woman” is a tautology because all widows are women, so it’s always true. “Number number” isn’t exactly a tautology, though; it’s simply a repetition.
I think “redundancy” is the best way to describe “ATM machine” or “PIN number”, though I’ll admit that this entire discussion is a superfluous pleonasm.
Well, no, “widow woman” is not a tautology in the strictest sense, because the two words don’t mean the same thing — a tautology is an if-and-only-if relationship. Widow implies woman, but woman does not imply widow.
The phrase “redundancies where the same word is repeated redundantly” is redundant.
*<—- The point
* <— Your shot
there’s worse. Some people say ‘Personal PIN Number’
I prefer Personal PIN Number of Identification.
I rofl’ed on the floor, very well done!
I wonder if that guy plays role-playing RPG games.
Namely, role-playing games where your character is a rocket-propelled grenade.
Fun, with an explosive finish. Tend to be over quickly though.
I’ve never read such intense discussion on a comic here, but I guess I’m thankful ’cause I wasn’t 100% what tautology was.
I don’t get it. Is the tautology only about the redundancy of “PIN number” when the N already stands for number? What about the fact that Credit Cards don’t USE PIN numbers? Is that relevant? ’cause that’s kinda throwing me off. Seems more like a ‘mistake’ on the muggers part rather than tautology… Debit cards use PINs, not credit cards. was this a deliberate mistake?
Credit cards are being updated to ones with PINs now. Banks have been switching over for over a year now, I believe, to prevent fraud.
I have a PIN for my credit card. It’s one, three, three…
last number’s seven, isn’t it?
dammit, that’s the same as the combination on my luggage!
Someone needs a chip’d credit card….