Repetition.

[Vimto]

What is the term for a phrase that repeats the meaning. e.g. I've just read in MSN that Wayne Rooney had a "temper tantrum"; tantrum means uncontrolled bad temper. "Revert back " is another example.

[bookbinder]

It's called tautology. My dictionary (Bloomsbury Concise English Dictionary 2nd ed.) says: "Tautology: a redundant repetition of a meaning in a sentence, using different words." In other words, saying the same thing twice.

[Jumbuck]

I'm not the OP but thanks bookbinder for putting me out of my misery; for the last 40 minutes I've been racking my brain to recall what is such a familiar word.

[bookbinder]

Thank you, jumbuck. It's always a pleasure to be of assistance!

[nightmare]

Also, it could be pleonasm.
Some dictionaries essentially give the same definition for both.
QM and I were involved in a discussion about this a few months ago (under my alter ego, Nescio). I think there is some subtle difference, but neither of us could really distinguish one from the other.

[Jumbuck]

Chambers online gives:

pleonasm noun, grammar, rhetoric 1 the use of more words than are needed to express something. 2 a superfluous word or words.

which doesn't relate to the meaning of the words used, but maybe a proper dictionary (rather than an online version) has it slightly differently.

[scotman]

From OED
pleonasm (_____________). Formerly in Lat. form pleo_nasmus.
[ad. L. pleonasmus (Mart.), a. Gr. __________, f. __________ to be superfluous or redundant, also in Gram. to add superfluously, f. _____ more, compar. of ____ much. Cf. F. pléonasme (1613).]
1. Gram. and Rhet. The use of more words in a sentence than are necessary to express the meaning; redundancy of expression (either as a fault of style, or as a figure purposely used for special force or clearness); with a and pl., an instance of this, or the superfluous word or phrase itself.
1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 82 Pleonasmus, where, with words seeming superfluous, we doe increase our reasons, as thus, With these eares I heard him speake it.
1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxii. (Arb.) 264 The first surplusage the Greekes call Pleonasmus, I call him (too full speech) and is no great fault.
1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God (1620) 15 Some thinke the preposition ___ to be here a Pleonasme_and that ______ and _________ is all one.
1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. to Rdr. 12, I require a favourable censure of all faults omitted, harsh compositions, pleonasms of words, tautological repetitions, &c.
1681 R. Wittie Surv. Heavens 28, I take it to be a Pleonasm, a Figure frequently used in Scripture.
1741 Warburton Div. Legat. II. 556 The genius of the Hebrew tongue, which so much delights in pleonasms.
1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxiv. 45 What the energetic pleonasm of our ancestors denominated _a false lie'.
_ b. Gram. The addition of a superfluous (or apparently superfluous) letter or syllable to a word. Obs. rare.
1678 Phillips (ed. 4), Pleonasm, in Grammar it is the adding of a Letter or Syllable, either to the beginning of a word, and is then called Prosthesis, or to the middle, and is then called Epenthesis, or to the end, and is then called Paragoge.
1763 Swinton in Phil. Trans. LIV. 1

[scotman]

Tautology
tautology (___________).
[ad. late L. tautologia (c 350 in Mar. Plotin. Sacerd.), a. Gr. __________, f. __________: see tautologous; in F. tautologie.]
a. A repetition of the same statement.
b. The repetition (esp. in the immediate context) of the same word or phrase, or of the same idea or statement in other words: usually as a fault of style.
c. With a and pl. An instance of this; a tautological phrase or expression; _a repetition of something already said (quot. 1599).
d. Applied to the repetition of a statement as its own reason, or to the identification of cause and effect.
e. transf. A mere repetition of acts, incidents, or experiences; in quot. 1650, used for the sending of a thing to its place of origin.
f. Mod. Logic. A compound proposition which is unconditionally true for all the truth-possibilities of its elementary propositions and by virtue of its logical form.

Soirry for the mess with pleonasm above

[lankeela]

You mean like a YTS Scheme?

[bookbinder]

Sir Ernest Gowers, in The Complete Plain Words, Pelican Books, 1973, reprinted 1975, groups tautology, pleonasm, and redundancy together under the heading of "overlapping", so, it looks as if tautology and pleonasm are so closely related, it can be difficult to tell them apart. My dictionary gives: "Pleonasm: the use of more words than are necessary to express a meaning." The word "tautology" comes from a root that means "the same", whereas "pleonasm" comes from a root that means "more", so my money is on "tautology" being the word that Vimto is looking for.

[denis567]

Off slightly at an angle, but I had not come across the word tautology before, then lo and behold I heard it used on the quiz show Eggheads yesterday.
It's funny how often this happens, you hear something you didn't know, then shortly afterwards you hear it used again.

[bookbinder]

How about a comment from Vimto, to round this discussion off?

[rojash]

"The pleonasm in his sentence was tautologically redundant" :-)