lapalissade

/ləˌpælɪˈsɑːd/

lapalissade means an obvious, self-evident truth, especially humorously so; a tautology or truism. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

lapalissade is pronounced /ləˌpælɪˈsɑːd/.

Why “lapalissade” is a great word

LAPALISSADE — [Noun] A statement of a blatantly, often humorously obvious truth, whose comedic effect lies in its self-evident redundancy. From French lapalissade, from Jacques de La Palice (a 16th-century French nobleman and military officer) + the suffix -ade (forming nouns of action or result). The term was coined in the 19th century from a satirical song about him. Unlike a truism, which is merely banal, or a tautology, a sterile logical repetition, a lapalissade is a factual observation so glaring it circles back to absurdity. It is the flavor of water being wet, the solemn report that a freshly baked loaf is not yet stale, or the declaration that a minute-old corpse has ceased to live. We state them not to inform, but to mark the profound comedy of life’s relentless predictability.

Etymology

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

noun

An obvious, self-evident truth, especially humorously so; a tautology or truism.“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.”