Tautological, Redundant Tautologies

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“It’s our xxx year anniversary today.”

Which semi-literate started this? And why do seemingly educated people perpetuate it? An anniversary is the celebration, commemoration, observation, remembrance or recognition of something that happened on the same date in a prior year. The word “year” is unnecessary.

Today is the 39th anniversary of my first date with my missus. I will not call it our 39 year anniversary.

A six-month anniversary is not an anniversary, nor is a three-week anniversary.
In this article, I go into greater depth (aka overdrive!) about the habit. Go ahead–click; the article’s both informative and entertaining!

And here, for your delight and delectation, are a  number of other commonly-used tautological redundancies redundancies.

SIN number. SIN = Social Insurance Number. Therefore SIN number is Social Insurance Number number.

PIN number. See SIN number above.

VIN number. Don’t get me started.

DIN number. What did I say?

There’s also BIN, GIN, MIN and many others, for those who wish to labour the point.

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