Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Idle talk or babbling; a needless repetition of words in speaking.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A needless repetition of words in speaking or writing.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Continual unnecessary
reiteration of the same words, phrases, or ideas.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek βαττολογία (battologia, "stammering speech").
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Examples
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Milton himself calls "the heathenish battology of multiplying words."
Milton Walter Alexander Raleigh 1891
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Vain repetitions -- tautology, battology, idle babbling over the same words again and again to no purpose, like Battus, Sub illis montibus erant, erant sub montibus illis; like that imitation of the wordiness of a fool, Eccl. x.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721
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Wonderland of Knowledge Encyclopedia, 1965] [Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do] See the civil battology [vain repetitions] of the heathen in their supplications: "Let the parricide be dragged: we beseech thee.
From the Talmud and Hebraica 1602-1675 1979
whichbe commented on the word battology
A needless repetition of words in speaking or writing.
May 12, 2008
jmjarmstrong commented on the word battology
JM knows of battologists who think so highly of battology that they battologise battologically.
March 8, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word battology
...and believe in him by vertue of old fermons, vvhich they haue heard of this matter before, vvat needeth this Battologic? this idle repetition of one and the felf fame thing, this cafting of water into the sea, this bringing of a fevv fticks into the maine vvood? - William Reynolds, 1593
July 10, 2010
qms commented on the word battology
The Donald is best, he repeats,
The best in his mind and his feats.
To sift his battology
At best is scatology
Best sent to the pit of deceits.
March 24, 2018