bibliogony

Pronounced: bib-lee-OG-uh-nee, noun

Notes: I saw “biblio-” at the start of the word and thought that I would know it, but I didn’t

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Yesterday’s word

The word pleonasm is “the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense; redundancy”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1500s.

Background / Comments

A great word! We’ve probably all run across redundant words, and this is a nice word (even if it is a bit fancy) to describe such writing. It came from the Late Latin word pleonasmus, which came from the Greek verb pleonazein (to be or have more than enough), which ultimately came from the Greek word pleōn (more). I was guilty of a pleonasm in college: while writing a paper, I had shorted some writing, but left myself with the phrase While this fact is true…, which the teacher caught, circled in red, and noted “facts are always true”. Generally, a pleonasm is considered poor style, but there are times when it can be used for emphasis — for example, the phrase I saw it with my own eyes!, while strictly speaking, is a pleonasm (who else’s eyes would you see it with?), it has a nice rhythm and emphasis.