Tautophrase

A tautophrase is a phrase or sentence that repeats an idea in the same words. The name was coined by William Safire in The New York Times.

Examples include:

  • "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." (John Wayne)
  • "It ain't over 'till it's over" (Yogi Berra)
  • "What's done is done." (Shakespeare's Macbeth)
  • "I am that I am." (God, Exodus 3:14)
  • "Tomorrow is tomorrow" (Antigone (Sophocles))
  • "A rose is a rose is a rose." (Gertrude Stein)
  • "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." (Sigmund Freud)
  • "A man's a man for a' that." (Robert Burns)
  • "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam!" (Popeye)
  • "Cars are cars." (Paul Simon song title)
  • "Let bygones be bygones."
  • "Facts are facts."
  • "A deal is a deal is a deal."
  • "Once it's gone it's gone."
  • "It is what it is."
  • "Boys will be boys."
  • "A win is a win."
  • "You do you."
  • "A la guerre comme à la guerre" — A French phrase literally meaning "at war as at war", and figuratively roughly equivalent to the English phrase "All's fair in love and war"
  • Qué será, será or che será, será — grammatically incorrect English loan from the Italian, meaning "Whatever will be, will be."
  • "Call a spade a spade."
  • "Once you’re committed, you’re committed."
  • "What wins out wins out."
  • "You can only plan if you have a plan."
  • "I don’t care how much you know, if you get caught in a fire, you’re caught in a fire."
  • "Befehl ist Befehl" ("an order is an order")

See also

References


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