A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology—which produces a comical effect. It is derived from the name Jacques de la Palice, and the word is used in several languages.Georges Lebouc, 2500 noms propres devenus communs, p. 389Simon Baker, Surrealism, History and Revolution, p.195
Origin La Palice's epitaph reads:Michel Chabanne (14 June 2007), comment on Encyclopédie des Expressions: Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade . Accessed 15 April 2009.
("Here lies the Seigneur de La Palice: If he weren't dead, he would still be envied.") These words were misread (accidentally or intentionally) as "...il ſerait [serait] encore en vie" ("...he would still be alive"), where both the long s and the word envie terminating with a regular e rather than the grammatically needed é to turn envie ("to envy") into envié ("envied"), aid in the confusion. In the 16th century this misreading was incorporated into a popular satirical song, and in time many other variants developed, including ("... that two days before his death / he was still quite alive") and ("... and when he was stark naked / he didn't wear a shirt").
In the early 18th century, Bernard de la Monnoye collected over 50 of these humorous "La Palice" quatrains and published them as a burlesque "Song of La Palice". From that song came the French term meaning an utterly obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology, and it was borrowed into several other languages. The French phrase ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious.
Similar terms
In Spanish culture, an analog is a folkloric character (Perogrullo) with his perogrulladas:Guillermo Suazo Pascual, Abecedario de dichos y frases hechas, 1999, p. 131. (The truth of Pedro Grullo, when his hand is closed, he calls it a fist).A dictionary of Spanish proverbs, 1834, p. 382.
In American English, "Captain Obvious" indicates, somewhat pejoratively, that a speaker has said a self-evident truth. Other kinds of trite expressions are "platitude" and "bromide".
Examples
Most drownings occur in the water. Most wars occur during wartime. 60 minutes feels like an hour. If we are an hour early, then we are 1 hour early. Most people are born at a very young age. At the end of the day, it is night.
See also "In a Cottage in Fife", a Mother Goose nursery rhyme Pleonasm Captain Obvious for uses of the term in media
References