responding back

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 10:13 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
>
> David Barnhart wrote:
> >
> > I received a message from a "customer service" automatic response to a
> > query.  In it the machine said "we look forward to responding back to you."
> > Is that idiomatic English?  I don't think I'd use that turn of phrase.
>
> Looks like a blend: "We look forward to responding to you" + "We look forward to getting back to you"
> (possibly with the additional influence of "We look forward to calling you back.")

"Respond back" is a common redundancy, as is "reply back." And these
days (esp. in S. Asia) there's also "revert back":

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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