Necessary Prerequisites

With the understanding that I’m certainly not above making the odd error of grammar or rhetoric here and there, I was nonetheless struck by this interesting piece of tautology yesterday in my reading for an IT seminar: “a necessary prerequisite”.

Aren’t all prerequisites necessary by definition? If a prerequisite wasn’t necessary it wouldn’t be a prerequisite, right?

I don’t know. Perhaps I’m just being ‘pedantic’ - which, while we’re on the subject, is a good example in itself of a word which is all too frequently misused.

In fact, I’d go as far as saying that ‘it frequently happens all the time’. No, I’m just joshing now.

Sigh.

Happily I was able to overlook this early faux pas and, despite the article’s rather inauspicious start, it turned out to be a belter.