lapalissade

See also: Lapalissade

English

Alternative forms

• Lapalissade

Etymology

From French lapalissade, equivalent to Jacques de la Palice (a French nobleman and military officer) + -ade; see Lapalissian for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ləˌpælɪˈsɑːd/, enPR: lə-păl'ĭ-sädʹ
• Rhymes: -ɑːd

Noun

lapalissade (plural lapalissades)

1. An obvious, self-evident truth, especially humorously so; a tautology or truism.
   • 1961, Robert John Cecil Harris, The Initial Effects of Ionizing Radiations on Cells: A Symposium Held in Moscow, October, 1960, Supported by UNESCO and the IAEA and Sponsored by the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.:

     In a certain way our theory is so obvious that it appears to us as a “lapalissade”. The cell is a network of phospholipid membranes and one of their chief functions is to keep certain substrates and enzymes apart.

   • 1990, Malcolm Scott, The Struggle for the Soul of the French Novel: French Catholic and Realist Novelists, 1850–1970, Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press:

     Despite their affection for Gavarni, they dismissed as a lapalissade his oft-repeated statement that science had killed the notion of God

   • 1996, Bridges: A Senegalese Journal of English Studies:

     His display of the virtues Dickens has popularized is a real fraud. Nothing can show that he wants to abide by them. That he only loves himself is a lapalissade.

Related terms

• lapalissian, Lapalissian
• lapalissianly, Lapalissianly

French

Etymology

From the name of Jacques de la Palice (a French nobleman and military officer) + -ade. His epitaph reads ci gît Monſieur de la Palice: s’il n’était pas mort, il ferait encore envie (“here lies the lord of La Palice: if he weren't dead, he would still be envied”). However, due to the similarity between the letters ⟨f⟩ and ⟨ſ⟩ (long s), it was misread (accidentally or intentionally) as the truism s’il n’était pas mort, il serait encore en vie (“if he weren't dead, he would still be alive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la.pa.li.sad/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ad

Noun

lapalissade f (plural lapalissades)

1. lapalissade, truism, tautology

   Synonyms: vérité de La Palice, vérité de La Palisse, truisme, tautologie

Derived terms

• lapalissadement (à la manière d'une lapalissade)

Related terms

• lapalissien
• lapalissiennement

Further reading

• “lapalissade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• lapalissade on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr