|
|
Post by Tone on Feb 10, 2012 21:34:03 GMT
I've just heard on the electric radio an advertisement which used the words:
" ... we are approaching our final destination"
I'm wondering if the expression "final destination" is tautological or if it can realistically represent a situation rendering it non-tautological.
Any opinions out there?
And it then occurs to me to ask also of the (well known ?) expression: "Ultima Thule".
Tone
|
|
|
|
Post by Twoddle on Feb 11, 2012 0:05:27 GMT
I've just heard on the electric radio an advertisement which used the words: " ... we are approaching our final destination" I'm wondering if the expression "final destination" is tautological or if it can realistically represent a situation rendering it non-tautological. Any opinions out there? And it then occurs to me to ask also of the (well known ?) expression: "Ultima Thule". Tone Tone, to your first question I'd respond yes, it's tautological, because one's destination is one's final place on a journey, so a final destination would be a final final place. As to your second question, I'm not sure what you're asking! |
|
|
|
Post by Dave on Feb 11, 2012 9:31:51 GMT
Can you have intermediate destinations? Or a first destination [subject to change?]?
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave on Feb 11, 2012 9:34:27 GMT
I'm glad to read that your radio is electric and not one of those hydraulic, pneumatic, or mechanical models!
|
|
|
|
Post by Tone on Feb 11, 2012 20:42:50 GMT
Twoddle, >As to your second question, I'm not sure what you're asking! <I'm asking if "Ultima Thule" is likewize tautological. Dave,
>I'm glad to read that your radio is electric and not one of those hydraulic, pneumatic, or mechanical models! <Many and many a year ago, when "transistor radios" were the latest thing, it seemed that all radios on sale were battery (only) powered. I wished to obtain a mains powered radio and, with a colleague from work, entered an appropriate emporium in King Street, Hammersmith. I asked the helpful young salesgirl (they were helpful in those days), indicating the display of a variety of battery powered "transistors", if they had a radio that was powered by the mains. After some puzzlement, and then a pause to consider my question, she said with a sudden sound of revelation, "Oh, you mean an electric radio!". The term just rather stuck with me and, after all these many years, it just slipped back in when I typed that. Such is the quixotic memory of trivial past events!  Tone |
|
|
|
Post by Twoddle on Feb 11, 2012 20:59:02 GMT
Twoddle, >As to your second question, I'm not sure what you're asking! <I'm asking if "Ultima Thule" is likewize tautological. I now understand the question, but I don't know the answer. Originally "Thule" was a semi-mythical island in the far north, and the Romans seem to have thought it was the furthest north it was possible to get, so they named it "Furthest (i.e. Ultima) Thule". Does that make it tautological? |
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Feb 11, 2012 21:28:46 GMT
Destination: Yes, it's tautological.
Ultima Thule: Apparently not.
From the OED:
DESTINATION
1. The action of destining, appointing, foreordaining, or setting apart to a particular use, purpose, or end; the fact of being destined. (In mod. use influenced by sense 2.)
b. transf. The end or purpose for which a person or thing is destined; in quot. 1749, the profession or business for which a person is destined.
2. spec. The fact of being destined or bound for a particular place; hence, short for place of destination, the place for which a person or thing is destined; the intended end of a journey or course. (Now the usual sense.)
(ULTIMA) THULE
1.a The ancient Greek and Latin name (first found in Polybius's account of the voyage of Pytheas) for a land six days' sail north of Britain, which he supposed to be the most northerly region in the world.
(Thule has been variously conjectured to be the Shetland Islands (so app. in Pliny and Tacitus), Iceland, the northern point of Denmark, or some point on the coast of Norway.)
b transf. As the type of the extreme limit of travel and discovery, chiefly (after Latin usage) in the phrase ultima Thule (farthest Thule); hence fig. the highest or uttermost point or degree attained or attainable, the acme, limit; the lowest limit, the nadir.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Feb 23, 2012 15:08:34 GMT
Can you have intermediate destinations? Or a first destination [subject to change?]? Yes, you can. So 'ultimate destination' might be strictly tautological but we don't use it that way any more. |
|
