{"id":23611,"date":"2024-08-14T11:53:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23611"},"modified":"2024-08-14T11:53:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:53:33","slug":"superfluously-redundant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23611","title":{"rendered":"Superfluously Redundant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What does the word <strong>redundant<\/strong> have to do with <strong>surges<\/strong> and <strong>waves<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kvh\/3600492540\/in\/photolist-6uasZA-5K3bpw-7h3qm6-2T7L79-6u6hUK-2n6313J-9bt8pZ-4ePQLV-8pQFxj-2oMQmFV-yuPn3-7hz96o-WKuU8H-mCtY4-8uxV3m-4CpCNo-7czHzY-6PUwQ-2nFC3nb-duKdiD-4yiGN-2p3HNUB-2mZzUkB-2dNVtJj-rug9w2-8oSNRf-2ovZ93J-tZv41-3498CE-4RQV4N-61Sg7H-2mbrB1B-7yj3up-nCE1-75Qakc-2p3HNW5-5NPXAR-AfoqK-8CC8AB-2pPqpw6-2k1TgsU-2mzBSAV-2iFAsDq-2nxY11z-2khMFB4-poNxo-GqNBLD-2cLJRur-DfB5F2-2j4eqND\" title=\"redundancy\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2422\/3600492540_0a387382ae_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" alt=\"redundancy\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Meanings of <strong>redundant<\/strong> [\u0279\u026a\u02c8d\u028cn.d\u0259nt \/ \u0279\u026a\u02c8dan.d\u0259nt] include: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Superfluous; exceeding what is necessary, no longer needed.<\/li>\n<li>Repetitive or needlessly wordy (<em>of words, writing, etc<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li>Dismissed from employment because no longer needed (<em>mainly UK, Ireland, Australia &#038; New Zealand<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li>Duplicating or able to duplicate the function of another component of a system, providing backup in the event the other component fails.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from the Latin word <em>redund\u0101ns<\/em> (overflowing, abounding), from <em>redund\u014d<\/em> (to overflow, abound, pour out), from <em>red-<\/em> (again, back) + <em>und\u014d<\/em> (surge, flow, abound), from <em>unda<\/em> (a wave, billow) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/redundant#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>undulate<\/strong> (to move in a wavelike motion, to appear wavelike) and <strong>redound<\/strong> (to contribute, reverberate, attach, reflect) in English, and <strong>ridondare<\/strong> (to overflow, abound, overwhelm) in Italian, <strong>redundar<\/strong> (to redound, result) in Spanish, and <strong>ondoyer<\/strong> (to sway, undulate) in French [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/redundo#Latin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>superfluous<\/strong> (in excess of what is required or sufficient) has a similarly overflowing origin &#8211; it comes from Middle English <em>superfluous<\/em> (redundant, immoderate, excessive), from Latin <em>superfluus<\/em> (running over, overflowing, superfluous, unnecessary), from <em>superflu\u014d<\/em> (to run over, overflow, be superfluous), from <em>super-<\/em> (over, above) + <em>flu\u014d<\/em> (to flow, stream, pour) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/superfluous#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Another word from similarly flowing roots is <strong>mellifluous<\/strong>, which means sweet, smooth and musical, or pleasant to hear, and usually refers to a person&#8217;s voice, tone or writing style. It can also mean &#8216;flowing like honey&#8217;, and comes from Latin <em>mellifluus<\/em> (honey-dropping, flowing with honey, mellifluous), from <em>mel<\/em> (honey, sweetness, pleasantness) + <em>flu\u014d<\/em> (to flow, pour, stream) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mellifluous#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>If someone has a <strong>mellifluous<\/strong> voice, you might describe them as <strong>melliloquent<\/strong>, an old word meaning &#8216;speaking sweetly or harmoniously&#8217;, from Latin <em>mel<\/em> (honey, etc) + <em>loquens<\/em> (speaking, talking) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/melliloquent#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2008, I was made redundant from my job as a web developer in Brighton. Or rather, my position was made redundant &#8211; that&#8217;s how they put it. They gave me a substantial redundancy payment and that was that. At the time, I couldn&#8217;t really afford to stay in Brighton, and fancied a change of scenery anyway, so I moved to Bangor and did an MA in Linguistics. I&#8217;ve been here ever since, working on Omniglot full-time, and am fortunate enough to make a living from it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited-728x90.gif\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does the word redundant have to do with surges and waves? Let&#8217;s find out. Meanings of redundant [\u0279\u026a\u02c8d\u028cn.d\u0259nt \/ \u0279\u026a\u02c8dan.d\u0259nt] include: Superfluous; exceeding what is necessary, no longer needed. Repetitive or needlessly wordy (of words, writing, etc). Dismissed from employment because no longer needed (mainly UK, Ireland, Australia &#038; New Zealand). Duplicating or able [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,128,10,15,26,64,78],"tags":[164,158,138,275,273,274],"class_list":["post-23611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-italian","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-english","category-spanish","category-words-and-phrases","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-mellifluous","tag-redundant","tag-superfluous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23611"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23616,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611\/revisions\/23616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}