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The definition of "advantage" is roughly "something positive". Definitions for "to gain" are rather varied, but usually mean "to win something" with a positive connotation.

With this in mind, is "to gain an advantage" a pleonasm or not? Does "gaining" imply "advantage"?

Examples of definitions of "to gain": 1 and 2.

Mien
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  • An advantage can be gained, but can also be lost. Aren't the two constructs symmetrical? – 9000 Nov 21 '13 at 17:03
  • @9000 I would say the same question could be said of lost almost identically. – Jon Hanna Nov 21 '13 at 17:06
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    If an advantage is something valuable, you gain as you acquire it and you lose when it is gone. The same logic could work with e.g. money or time. Is using 'gain' with anything valuable look equally pleonastic? – 9000 Nov 21 '13 at 17:09
  • @9000 I think their point is that advantage implies value, but little else. To gain time is valuable in a specific way, to gain an advantage is not; you can't gain anything that isn't an advantage except perhaps in an ironic use of the word. (Or a different sense, gaining weight may or may not be an advantage, but it's a slightly different sense of the word). To that extent the use is tautologous, though not a pleonasm, for the reasons I give in my answer. – Jon Hanna Nov 21 '13 at 17:13
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    Gain weight (for the already large)? – bib Nov 21 '13 at 18:05
  • @JonHanna I first thought it could be a tautology, but then I did some research and thought pleonasm was more fitting here. – Mien Nov 22 '13 at 08:40

2 Answers2

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No, because a pleonasm needs to not just repeat something, but to use more than is necessary.

As the first dictionary definition you link to says, the sense of gain you are talking about is transitive. As such it must have an object; you cannot just say "he gained" in this sense of the word (you can in others).

You could use another noun or noun phrase as the object, but which? You could have a particular noun that is more specific:

Repeatedly the Germans and Russians gained control of the high ground outside Stalingrad from each other.

That would be better than just "an advantage" in most cases, though in some you might still need to point out that the more specific noun did indeed bring an advantage with it. (Or if the context already explained that you were talking about the fight to control Mamayev Kurgan during the Battle of Stalingrad, then repeating that point would be an even worse repetition than just saying "...gained the advantage").

Otherwise you are left with vagueness:

He gained something.

Gained what? Who cares?

As such, "to gain an advantage" is often reasonable.

Jon Hanna
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  • +1, I would also mention that you can gain entry or access neither of which is necessarily an advantage as such. – terdon Nov 21 '13 at 17:20
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    @terdon, there's plenty of senses of gain. In those examples one would imagine that entry or access was at least seen as potentially advantageous, but if you were overweight and then you gained weight, that one would clearly not be, but I'm not going to consider other senses of gain except to note that there are other senses, as I already have. – Jon Hanna Nov 21 '13 at 17:26
  • I would argue that in the phrase "to gain an advantage", gain would be defined not as "something that is helpful" but rather as "an increase in amount, magnitude, or degree". The degree to which a person has an advantage is increased. The use of gain to me "resources or advantage acquired or increased" is the scenario in which one makes gains (with no object, a transitive word). The problem is that the OP is using the wrong definition. Note, both definitions are from the same site OP linked. – Doc Nov 21 '13 at 22:52
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Jon Hanna's analysis is valid, but I think a simpler angle suffices to refute the notion that "to gain an advantage" is a pleonasm. Namely, the fact that gain even has some senses that are not strictly positive means that you need context to even know which sense of gain was used. As such, advantage gives you that context, and is thus not redundant.

John Y
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  • I think this is also true. Indeed, it occurred to me to add this to my answer while I was walking, and I return to my computer to see you're ahead of me on it :) – Jon Hanna Nov 21 '13 at 23:22