Two-word tautologies

[MoleAtTheCounter]

Past history
Free gift
Aromatic smell
Mass exodus (a BBC favourite)

Please post more examples.

PIN number

Oh yes, the PIN number I use at an ATM machine.

She self-diagnosed herself

Close proximity
Plan ahead
Advance warning
Over exaggerate
Armed gunman

Global pandemic

Not exactly what you were asking but references to 'this moment in time' always irritate me. I mean, what other types of moment are there? Similarly associated expressions like 'evolved over time' where the time is inherent in the word.

The most frequently abused Mn tautology is a darling of the Baby Names board: 'very unique.'

And I recognise that this is just me being irritable, but I roll my eyes at the combination of 'so-called' and quotation marks, which is a form of tautology where the punctuation and 'so-called' are reiterating the same thing unnecessarily, eg. 'My so-called "friends" drifted away when I had a baby' or 'My so-called "boyfriend" turned out to be a scammer.'

Reduced down

These all seem like normal speech to me. Why do some people want to razor our wonderful language down to the barest essentials for understanding?

Free gift! Who doesn't love a free gift? It's free! And a gift :)

The more words the better in my view.

Very unique grates with me too; I agree with you 110%.

Safe haven

One can be armed with something other than a gun.

110% makes DH foam too - every time

Our party must come together to unite ...

'Free gift' doesn't bother me at all. Possibly because it gives me a warm glow of nostalgia for the useless tat that came free with magazines or comics in my childhood.

Or 'advance warning', actually. Maybe because I think there's a useful shade of meaning between an immediate warning ('Look out! That tree is coming down!') and an advance warning ('High winds expected in the next 48 hours are likely to cause tree damage' etc).

Naan bread

Two twins

Pre order

@Somebodiesmother

One can be armed with something other than a gun

But can you be a gunman and not armed.

Oh and another thing, drives me bananas...

See those three dots? An ellipsis? At my work they call them "three ellipses".

AAARRGH!

Hence why.

😬

Vitally important.

So? A gunman can't be unarmed

@Amantissima The so-called plus quotation marks thing really irritates me, too.

Yes, but in this context the word armed adds no additional information.

Wildly inaccurate. It's either inaccurate or it's not.