Funnily enough, this is called RAS syndrome (redundant acronym syndrome syndrome)….
GPS System LCD Display RAM Memory HIV Virus …
ATM machine makes sense if you change the acronym’s meaning to be ‘ass to mouth’
I’m usually pretty pedantic with language (people using “begs the question” instead of “raises the question” raises by blood pressure just a little bit) but will disagree on chai tea. Just because chai means tea in another language, doesn’t mean chai tea is redundant the same way ATM machine is.
In English, we’ve taken the generic word for tea as a loanword and use it to describe a specific type of tea. Like hound dog, or Saharah desert. It’s essentially a new word in this context so not redundant. Machine in ATM is the same word as the machine that follows, so that one is at least justifiably something to be pedantic about.
Yeah, it begs my blood pressure too. I usually say masala chai to avoid redundancy and be specific to the kind of chai, but garam masala just means hot spice blend, similar to melange. Spice Melange is the name for the magic spice in Dune, but Dune is called Arrakis by the native people (which probably just means sand dune in the Freman language.)
