Dictionary

tautologist en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English tautology Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English tautologist From tautology + -ist.

Meanings

1. One who makes tautologies.
   • His is the pseudo-movement, where the doubling simply mimics the routine of a tautologist, of a monologist, and of a Hegelian dialectician. 1996, Syed Manzoorul Islam, The Ethics of Travel: From Marco Polo to Kafka, page 28:
   • When his action is mechanically good he produces a great effect on an uncritical assembly, but he is a tiresome tautologist to the intellectual. 1886, Alexander Melville Bell, Essays and Postscripts on Elocution, page 162:
   • Nature isn't such a tautologist as to make another to follow him. 1995, Philip Collins, Charles Dickens: The Critical Heritage, page 579:
   • Do you think that God is a tautologist? Let us have faith! Let us say something positive. Irony of itself is the beginning of baseness. 1870, Victor Hugo, The Destroyer of the Second Republic: Being Napoleon the Little, page 302:
   • Oh, that damn'd tautologist too! 1797, John Bell, Bell's British Theatre: Consisting of the Most Esteemed English Plays, page 19:

Forms