Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “pleonasm” come from?

pleonasm (English) comes from French pléonasme, from Latin pleonasmus, from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός, from Ancient Greek πλεονάζω, from Ancient Greek πλείων, from Proto-Hellenic *pleíhōn, from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₁yōs.

pleonasm (English): Redundancy in wording; A phrase involving...

Definitions

  1. Redundancy in wording; A phrase involving...

Ancestry of “pleonasm”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchpléonasmepleonasm, redundancy
2Latinpleonasmus—
3Ancient Greekπλεονασμόςabundance; excess
4Ancient Greekπλεονάζωto presume on; to be superfluous, more than...
5Ancient Greekπλείωνmore, comparative degree of πολύς; more; more,...
6Proto-Hellenic*pleíhōn—
7Proto-Indo-European*pléh₁yōs—

Words derived from “pleonasm”

  • pleonastic
  • pleonastically
  • pleonasmic
Every word from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₁yōs →