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Lapalissade
A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology—which produces a comical effect. It is derived from the name Jacques de la Palice, and the word is used in several languages.Georges Lebouc, ''2500 noms propres devenus communs''p. 389/ref> Origin La Palice's epitaph readsMichel Chabanne (14 June 2007), comment oEncyclopédie des Expressions: Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade. Accessed 15 April 2009. :''"Ci-gît le Seigneur de La Palice: s'il n'était pas mort, il ferait encore envie."'' :("Here lies the Seigneur de La Palice: If he weren't dead, he would still be envied.") These words were misread (accidentally or intentionally) as "''...il ſerait eraitencore en vie''" ("...he would still be alive"), where the long s aids in the confusion. In the 16th century this misreading was incorporated into a popular satirical song, and in time many other variants developed, including "''... que deux jours avant sa mort / il était encore en vie''" ("... t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques De La Palice
Jacques de La Palice (or de La Palisse) (1470 – 24 February 1525) was a French nobleman and military officer. He was the lord of Chabannes, La Palice, Pacy, Chauverothe, Bort-le-Comte and Héron. In 1511, he received the title of Grand Master of France. As a Marshal under Francis I, he fought against Habsburg armies, and died during the battle of Pavia. Biography He was born at Lapalisse, Auvergne. At 15, La Palice entered the service of King Charles VIII of France, of his same age. His first battle was that of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (1488). Four years later he married Jeanne de Montbéron, daughter of chamberlain Eustache de Montbéron. In 1494 he followed the king in war for the Kingdom of Naples, taking part in the latter city's capture in 1495, as well as in the battle of Fornovo (1498) against the Italian League, which allowed the French army to retreat in their homeland. After Charles' death, La Palice accompanied the new King, Louis XII, in the campaign for M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truism
A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device, and is the opposite of falsism. In philosophy, a sentence which asserts incomplete truth conditions for a proposition may be regarded as a truism. An example of such a sentence would be "Under appropriate conditions, the sun rises." Without contextual supporta statement of what those appropriate conditions arethe sentence is true but incontestable. Lapalissades, such as "If he were not dead, he would still be alive", are considered to be truisms. See also * Aphorism * Axiom * Cliché * Contradiction * Dictum * Dogma * Figure of speech * Maxim * Moral * Platitude * Synthetic proposition Synthetic things are composed of multiple parts, often with the implication that they are artificial. In particular, 'synthetic' may refer to: Science * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-evident
In epistemology (theory of knowledge), a self-evident proposition is a proposition that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof, and/or by ordinary human reason. Some epistemologists deny that any proposition can be self-evident. For most others, one's belief that oneself is conscious is offered as an example of self-evidence. However, one's belief that someone else is conscious is not epistemically self-evident. The following proposition is often said to be self-evident: "A finite whole is greater than, or equal to, any of its parts". A logical argument for a self-evident conclusion would demonstrate only an ignorance of the purpose of persuasively arguing for the conclusion based on one or more premises that differ from it (see ' and begging the question). Analytic propositions It is sometimes said that a self-evident proposition is one whose denial is self-contradictory. It is also sometimes said that an analytic proposition is one whose denial is sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Words And Phrases
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents, most of which are members of the ''Organisation internationale de la Francophonie'' (OI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleonasm
Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as "black darkness" or "burning fire". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style. Pleonasm may also be used for emphasis, or because the phrase has become established in a certain form. Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature. Usage Most often, ''pleonasm'' is understood to mean a word or phrase which is useless, clichéd, or repetitive, but a pleonasm can also be simply an unremarkable use of idiom. It can aid in achieving a specific linguistic effect, be it social, poetic or literary. Pleonasm sometimes serves the same function as rhetorical repetition—it can be used to reinforce an idea, contention or question, rendering writing clearer and easier to understand. Pleonasm can serve as a redundancy check; if a word is unknown, misunderstood, misheard, or if the medium of communication is poor—a wireless telephone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nursery Rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays, and most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first English collections, ''Tommy Thumb's Song Book'' and a sequel, ''Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book'', were published by Mary Cooper (publisher), Mary Cooper in 1744. Publisher John Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, ''Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle'' (London, 1780). History Lullabies The oldest children's songs of which we have records are Lullaby, lullabies, intended to help a child fall asleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The English term lullaby i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mother Goose
The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, however, was dependent on a Christmas pantomime, a successor to which is still performed in the United Kingdom. The term's appearance in English dates back to the early 18th century, when Charles Perrault’s fairy tale collection, ''Contes de ma Mère l'Oye'', was first translated into English as ''Tales of My Mother Goose''. Later a compilation of English nursery rhymes, titled ''Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle'', helped perpetuate the name both in Britain and the United States. The character Mother Goose's name was identified with English collections of stories and nursery rhymes popularised in the 17th century. English readers would already have been familiar with Mother Hubbard, a stock figure when Edmund Spenser pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bromide
A bromide ion is the negatively charged form (Br−) of the element bromine, a member of the halogens group on the periodic table. Most bromides are colorless. Bromides have many practical roles, being found in anticonvulsants, flame-retardant materials, and cell stains. Although uncommon, chronic toxicity from bromide can result in bromism, a syndrome with multiple neurological symptoms. Bromide toxicity can also cause a type of skin eruption, see potassium bromide. The bromide ion has an ionic radius of 196 pm. Natural occurrence Bromide is present in typical seawater (35 PSU) with a concentration of around 65 mg/L, which is about 0.2% of all dissolved salts. Seafood and deep sea plants generally have higher levels than land-derived foods. Bromargyrite—natural, crystalline silver bromide—is the most common bromide mineral known but is still very rare. In addition to silver, bromine is also in minerals combined with mercury and copper. Formation and react ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platitude
A platitude is a trite, meaningless, or prosaic statement, often used as a thought-terminating cliché, aimed at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease. The statement may be true, but its meaning has been lost due to its excessive use. Platitudes often take the form of tautologies, e.g., "it is what it is", making them appear vacuously true. But the phrase is used to mean "there is no way of changing it", which is no longer a tautology: "Structuring the sentiment as a tautology allows it to appear inescapable." At the same time, some phrases that have become platitudes may provide useful moral guidance, such as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Others, though widely trivialized, may be thought-provoking, such as "Be the change you wish to see in the world". Etymology The word is a borrowing from the French compound ''platitude'', from ''plat'' 'flat' + ''-(i)tude'' '-ness', thus 'flatness'. The figurative sense is first attested in French in 1694 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tautology (logic)
In mathematical logic, a tautology (from el, ταυτολογία) is a formula or assertion that is true in every possible interpretation. An example is "x=y or x≠y". Similarly, "either the ball is green, or the ball is not green" is always true, regardless of the colour of the ball. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein first applied the term to redundancies of propositional logic in 1921, borrowing from rhetoric, where a tautology is a repetitive statement. In logic, a formula is satisfiable if it is true under at least one interpretation, and thus a tautology is a formula whose negation is unsatisfiable. In other words, it cannot be false. It cannot be untrue. Unsatisfiable statements, both through negation and affirmation, are known formally as contradictions. A formula that is neither a tautology nor a contradiction is said to be Contingency (philosophy), logically contingent. Such a formula can be made either true or false based on the values assigned to its propositi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
