A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a
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 conditio ...
or
tautology—which produces a comical effect. It is derived from the name
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 Mas ...
, and the word is used in several languages.
[Georges Lebouc, ''2500 noms propres devenus communs'']
p. 389
/ref>
Origin
La Palice's epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
reads[Michel Chabanne (14 June 2007), comment o]
Encyclopédie 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
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "poſ ...
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''" ("... that two days before his death / he was still quite alive") and "''... et quand il était tout nu, / il n'avait point de chemise''"
("... and when he was stark naked / he didn't wear a shirt").
In the early 18th century Bernard de la Monnoye
Bernard de La Monnoye (15 June 1641, in Dijon – 15 October 1728) was a French lawyer, poet, philologue and critic, known chiefly for his carols ''Noei borguignon'' ('' Borguignon Christmas'').
Biography
La Monnoye began his studies in Jesuit ...
collected over 50 of these humorous "La Palice" quatrains, and published them as a burlesque " Song of La Palice". From that song came the French term '' lapalissade'' meaning an utterly obvious truth—i.e. a 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 conditio ...
or tautology, and it was borrowed into several other languages. The French phrase "''La Palice en aurait dit autant!''" ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious.
Similar terms
In Spanish culture, an analog is a folkloric character (Perogrullo) with his '' perogrulladas'': "Verdad de Pedro Grullo, que a la mano cerrada, la llama puño" (The truth of Pedro Grullo, when his hand is closed, he calls it a fist).[A dictionary of Spanish proverbs, 1834]
p. 382
/ref>
In English, Captain Obvious indicates, somewhat pejoratively, that a speaker has said a 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- ...
truth. Other kinds of trite expressions are "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.
...
" and "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 ...
".
See also
* "In a Cottage in Fife", a 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, howeve ...
nursery rhyme
* Pleonasm
References
{{reflist
French words and phrases
Humour
Rhetoric