A tautophrase is a
phrase or sentence that repeats an idea in the same words. The name was coined in 2006 by
William Safire
William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He w ...
in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.
Examples include:
* "Brexit means Brexit" (
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
)
* "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." (
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
)
* "It ain't over 'till it's over" (
Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher who later took on the roles of Manager (baseball), manager and Coach (baseball), coach. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball ...
)
* "What's done is done." (Shakespeare's ''
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...
'')
* "
I am that I am
"I Am that I Am" is a Bible translations into English, common English translation of the Hebrew language, Hebrew phrase (; )– also "I am who (I) am", "I will become what I choose to become", "I am what I am", "I will be what I will be", "I crea ...
." (
God, Exodus 3:14)
* "Tomorrow is tomorrow" (
Antigone (Sophocles)
''Antigone'' ( ; grc, Ἀντιγόνη) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, prece ...
)
* "A rose is a rose is a rose." (
Gertrude Stein)
* "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." (
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
)
* "A man's a man for a' that." (
Robert Burns)
* "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam!" (
Popeye)
* "Cars are cars." (
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
song title)
* "Let bygones be bygones."
* "Facts are facts."
* "Enough is enough."
* "A deal is a deal is a deal."
* "Once it's gone it's gone."
* "
It is what it is."
* "Boys will be boys."
* "A win is a win."
* "You do you."
* "''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, meaning "Whatever will be, will be."
* "Call a spade a spade."
* "Once you’re committed, you’re committed."
* "What wins out wins out."
* "You can only plan if you have a plan."
* "I don’t care how much you know, if you get caught in a fire, you’re caught in a fire."
*
"Befehl ist Befehl" ("an order is an order")
See also
*
Ploce (figure of speech)
A ploce is a figure of speech in which a word is separated or repeated with a delay in order to emphasize a statement. Similar to epizeuxis which denotes an immediate repetition, ploce deliberately adds an intervening word between repetitions for ...
*
Repetition (rhetorical device) Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a short space of words (including in a poem), with no particular placement of the words to secure emphasis. It is a multilinguistic written or spoken device, frequently used in English and several ...
*
Tautology
*
Platitude
References
*Safire, William (2006).
On language: Tautophrases ''The New York Times'', May 7, 2006.
2006 neologisms
Rhetorical techniques
English grammar
English phrases
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