lapalissade
{{Short description|An obvious and comical truism}}
{{missing information|examples|date=September 2019}}
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, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zl-IBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT389 p. 389]Simon Baker, Surrealism, History and Revolution, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RmOr-yv5ySsC&pg=PA195 p.195]
Origin
La Palice's epitaph reads:Michel Chabanne (14 June 2007), comment on [http://www.mon-expression.info/une-verite-de-la-palice Encyclopédie des Expressions: Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303234315/http://www.mon-expression.info/une-verite-de-la-palice |date=2009-03-03 }}. Accessed 15 April 2009.
:{{lang|fr|"Ci-gît le Seigneur de La Palice: s'il n'était pas mort, il ferait encore envie."}}
:("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 the long s aids in the confusion. In the 16th century this misreading was incorporated into a popular satirical song, and in time many other variants developed, including {{lang|fr|"... que deux jours avant sa mort / il était encore en vie"}} ("... that two days before his death / he was still quite alive") and {{lang|fr|"... et quand il était tout nu, / il n'avait point de chemise"}}
("... 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 {{lang|fr|lapalissade}} meaning an utterly obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology, and it was borrowed into several other languages. The French phrase {{lang|fr|"La Palice en aurait dit autant!"}} ("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 {{Interlanguage link multi|Pedro Grullo|es}} (Perogrullo) with his perogrulladas:Guillermo Suazo Pascual, Abecedario de dichos y frases hechas, 1999, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CJXBbIXnKKwC&pg=PA131 p. 131]. {{lang|es|"Verdad de Pedro Grullo, que a la mano cerrada, la llama puño"}} (The truth of Pedro Grullo, when his hand is closed, he calls it a fist).A dictionary of Spanish proverbs, 1834, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gPEIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA382 p. 382].
In English, Captain Obvious indicates, somewhat pejoratively, that a speaker has said a self-evident truth. Other kinds of trite expressions are "platitude" and "bromide".