redundancy

So, since I'm a word person, I thought I'd start this blog off with a little dictionary wisdom.

When thinking about what to name my blog, I wanted something that described me and my love of words. And by extension all things witty. For some reason, repartee came up. I'm thinking it might have to do with all those years of French. And being a linguistics nerd probably adds a little to that interest as well. So why is it that we often see "witty repartee," when in truth, wit is enveloped in the meaning of repartee in the first place?

That brings me to redundant, which the dictionary describes as "superfluous repetition or overlapping." A lot of things are redundant lately. When people are laid off from a job, they are made redundant. When the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last week, experts in the field of engineering said there weren't enough built-in redundancies in the structure. When people write "at this present time" rather than using "currently" they're being redundant. Or maybe they're just being wordy; that's probably up for debate.

So back to repartee and why I picked this word in the first place: this blog is a place for "a quick, witty reply." Since the root of this word is from fencing, I'll start the conversation, and you can hit me with your best shot.