WOTD: pleonasm

pleonasm: n. the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense.

Another example of systemic cultural bias

This is the Dewey Decimal System's categorization for religions of the world, which is the 200 category:

200  Religion
210  Natural theology
220  Bible
230  Christian theology
240  Christian moral & devotional theology
250  Christian orders & local church
260  Christian social theology
270  Christian church history
280  Christian sects & denominations
290  Other religion

[Noted on Shirky.com]

The fable of the Sheath and the Knife (Diderot)

One day, the Sheath and the Knife began to quarrel. The Knife said to the Sheath:

"Sheath, my love, you are a fickle jade, for every day you accommodate new knives."

The Sheath answered the Knife: "Knife, my dear, you are a faithless knave, for every day you change sheaths."

"Sheath, that is not what you promised me."

"Knife, you deceived me first."

This quarrel occurred at table. The man sitting between the Sheath and the Knife spoke up saying:

"You, Sheath, and you, Knife, were both right to change, since change is what suits the both of you. But you were quite wrong to promise that you would not change. Knife, can you not see that God made you to fit more than one Sheath? And you, Sheath, to accommodate more than one Knife? You thought certain knives were mad when they vowed to dispense altogether with sheaths, and you thought certain sheaths mad when they vowed to remain closed to all knives. But you did not think that you were just as mad as they when you, Sheath, swore to limit yourself to one Knife, and you, Knife, never to look beyond one Sheath..."

Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist