Pleonasm or useful linguistic device?


During the 1970s and 1980s, there was frequent adverse comment in the press and to the broadcast media (I was at the end of quite a lot of complaints) about the phrase “at this moment in time”. Complainants generally said things like “what’s wrong with just saying ‘now’, or ‘at the moment’?” I think the answer is that they don’t mean quite the same thing. “At this moment in time” is more immediate than either of the other words/phrases, and emphasises this.

I haven’t heard the phrase for some time, and that is either because it’s now so common that I don’t notice it any more, or else because it’s dropped out of use again. However, a new pleonasm has taken its place: “for ever”. Programme presenters and voice-over artists are increasingly using this phrase in the context “it changed his life for ever” or “this changed history for ever”. The words “for ever” are completely unnecessary here – if someone’s life, or history, is changed, it is highly unlikely that it could be changed back by a new set of circumstances.

So why do we use these unnecessary phrases? I think it is because we need to add emphasis to our statements. To say that “something changed” sounds rather flat. To say it changed “for ever” adds that extra bit to stress the point. It is not a new phenomenon: language is constantly wearing out, and so needs to be re-invigorated by some means, and this is one of them. Eventually the new term can become so ingrained that we don’t realise it was originally a pleonasm. Take the French word “aujourd’hui”, for instance. When we learn French as a foreign language, we accept without question that this means “today”, but if we analyse it, we can break it down into its etymological components, and find that it translates as “on the day of today”, since the Old French word for “today” was “hui”, the French reflex of the Latin word “hodie” – itself a contraction of “hoc die” = “on this day”. “Hui” by itself became such an insignificant little word that in order to draw attention to its meaning, it had to be extended to “aujourd’hui”. The same is what happens in English when we hear “this casual meeting changed his life for ever”.


  1. Int·resting post. Wise judgment. It’s rather a personal thing whether or not one finds such expressions irritating coz they’re clichés and overdone.
    You’re so right to point out how far back they go. There’s one partic·lar one that I make efforts to avoid but have a sneaking liking for. It’s probably very old. I tend to imagine it being sed by King Alfred when he’d agreed to the truce that signed away half of England. Here’s where transcription comes in handy coz it’s /ɪn ðɪs deɪ n eɪʤ/.

  2. My particular teeth-grinder at this moment in time is “going forward” instead of “in the future”.

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