Concept in Definition ABC

A statement is said to be a truism when it is so obvious that it does not need to be communicated. In this way, the phrase "truism truth" or a truism indicates that what is affirmed is not very intelligent, since that does not provide any relevant information, since it is something obvious, evident and so logical that it is totally unnecessary. The expression "This is a truism" implies saying that something is silly and that it would be better if it had not been said.

Examples of truism

In the context of a soccer game someone claims that he will win the team to score more goals. On a very rainy day one person tells another that the I usually of the street is wet. Comment that the sun rises at dawn. These examples are a sample of truism truths. These types of expressions are used with some frequency in the language daily life and show that the transmitter of the message has committed a clumsiness when speaking, because the information that communicates is banal, irrelevant and does not say anything that is not known.

Platitudes are equivalent to tautologies

In the context of figures rhetorical tautology is that expression in which unnecessary words are used, since they do not contribute anything from an informative point of view. Some examples of tautologies would be the following: previous antecedents, full full, or three-sided triangle. As can be seen, tautologies are language formulas empty of content and refer to the same idea as platitude truths.

The origin of the term truism

In the study of the origin of words we can find curious stories, just as it happens with the word platitude.

The word truism is formed by the union of two words: Pedro and Grullo. According to a popular legend of remote and unknown origin, there was a man named Pedro Grullo. This predictably imaginary character was attributed unique statements and, for example, it is said that the closed hand was called a fist and other similar sentences.

In this way, the legend of Pedro Grullo spread in popular language and that's where the word truism and platitudes come from. From the point of view literary, it was the seventeenth-century Spanish writer Francisco de Quevedo who first used the idea of ​​platitude to allude to the simple and inconsequential comments that are part of the communication everyday.

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