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Lapalissade

A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology—which produces a comical effect.

Version
v1 · 2026-09-28 · History
Domain-specific #
10313
Domain group
Humanities
Origin domain
Rhetoric
Subdomains
Humor, Figures of Speech → Rhetoric

Core Idea

Lapalissade is treated here as the recurring rhetoric and humor identity summarized by this source-grounded definition: A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology—which produces a comical effect. 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. The French phrase ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious.

Scope of Application

  • Origin. The French phrase ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious.

  • Documented setting. It is derived from the name Jacques de la Palice, and the word is used in several languages.

  • Origin. ("Here lies the Seigneur de La Palice: If he weren't dead, he would still be envied.").

  • Origin. 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.

  • Origin. 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.

Clarity

A clear use of Lapalissade names the carrier, the operative relation, and the conditions under which the source treats the identity as present. The minimal definition is A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology—which produces a comical effect. The strongest recognition evidence in the frozen account is: In the early 18th century, Bernard de la Monnoye collected over 50 of these humorous "La Palice".

Manages Complexity

Lapalissade compresses multiple rhetoric and humor details into a stable diagnostic relation. The source shows both the central mechanism—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.—and the practical consequence—the French phrase ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious.

Abstract Reasoning

  1. Type the carrier. Identify the rhetoric and humor entities to which the claim applies.
  2. State the relation. Use the source-grounded identity: A lapalissade is an obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology—which produces a comical effect.
  3. Check operation and conditions. 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.
  4. Demand recognition evidence.

Knowledge Transfer

Within the home domain. Knowledge about Lapalissade transfers literally when a new case preserves the same carrier type, relation, and recognition test. The French phrase ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious. It is derived from the name Jacques de la Palice, and the word is used in several languages. Beyond the home domain. No canonical parent is asserted for Lapalissade. An outside case receives the specialist name only when the same typed roles and rejection conditions can be filled literally; otherwise the comparison remains an analogy pending later graph densification.

Relationships to Other Abstractions

Local relationship map for LapalissadeParents appear above the current abstraction, mutual partners to the right, and children below. Node labels state whether each abstraction is prime or domain-specific; colors identify relation types.LapalissadeDOMAINDomain-specific abstraction: Joke — is a kind ofJokeDOMAIN

Current abstraction Lapalissade Domain-specific

Parents (1) — more general patterns this builds on

  • Lapalissade is a kind of Joke Domain-specific

    A lapalissade is a joke whose comic mechanism is an ostentatiously obvious truth.

Hierarchy path (1) — routes to 1 parentless root

Neighborhood in Abstraction Space

Lapalissade sits in a sparse region of the domain-specific corpus (95th percentile for distinctiveness): few abstractions share its structure, so a faithful description tends to retrieve it precisely.

Family — Unclustered & Miscellaneous (2551 abstractions)

Nearest neighbors

Computed from structural-signature embeddings · 2026-10-08