A cool word: battology

I love dictionary.com; it has a "word of the day" which is often one I'm unfamiliar with. While many are words that fail to inspire me, some do.

A few weeks ago, battology was the word they introduced.

What a great word! I knew at first it was one I'd like.

When I review letters and other documents we produce, I often discover word repetition that is unnecessary. I saw it today in today's WSJ (and, just provided an example of wearisome and unnecessary word repetition ... I could have done better, right?). In an article on the Yankee's (my wife's favorite team, by the way) titled "The Yankees' Real Rival" we read "Joba Chamberlain had a rough night that night." Must have slipped by the editor. First, the "that night" could have been dropped, as "that night" (Thursday's, to be exact) had already been established. Or, if it was felt that these two words were needed for clarity, than "rough time" would have avoided the dual appearance of "night" in the same sentence, and oh, so close together.

I love the saying that "there is no such thing as writing, just rewriting." For it's in the rewriting that we usually discover the presence of battology. Great word, right?