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neither fish nor fowlI've heard this bit, but without the red herring! Which led me to wondering where "red herring" came from, to which M-W answered: Main Entry: red herring
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1 : a herring cured by salting and slow smoking to a dark brown color
2 [from the practice of drawing a red herring across a trail to confuse hunting dogs] : something that distracts attention from the real issue.Would too many red herring(s) lead you on a wild goose chase?  Oh, and I think it's "neither fair wind nor foul".
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never heard of a pair of Bristols?
Why is everybody being so coy, here? For the benefit of (I imagine) confused readers out there, let me make this abundantly clear:
Bristol >> Bristol City >> titty >> tit
And for once I agree with Heinlein, in that this is just a variant on "teat" rather than an offensive word.
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(nearly) equivalent pairings
Half and half is precisely equivalent, though certainly not redundant!
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Dear Fishonabike, My SOED has five noun "tit" definitions and two verb definition. One of my quite old US dictionaries defines tit as a shortened term for titmouse. Under titmouse the SOED gives first meaning as a bird of the genus Parus and a second as a small, petty or insignificant thing. How does this affect references to tits?
Any comments? As if you could pass on this chance! wow
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You never heard of a pair of Bristols? Can't be Brit then - or haven't watched enough "Carry on..." movies.Right on both counts. I remember going to the movies to see one of the "Carry On" movies as a child of around 8 ('75 or '76), and didn't find it at all funny. Maybe that was my father's intention! 
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Kith and kin are not redundant, meaning friends and neighbors, but kin also having the meaning of kinfolks. It was meant to mean a wider circle than either one, if I recall correctly.
TEd
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Wow - look at this! (Merriam-Webster http://www.webster.com) Main Entry: tit
Pronunciation: 'tit
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English -- more at TEAT
Date: before 12th century
1 : TEAT
2 usually vulgar : BREAST -- usually used in pluralActually I was moderately surprised to find it listed, let alone as first meaning. Looks like Heinlein made a difference
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Since we're talking about red herrings I thought this might be appropriate... http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/archives/0600Scroll down to June 26 It's time for the human race to enter the solar system. --Governor George W. Bush Jr.
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coincidentally, yerterday's wwftd was a red herring type of word: malism.
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coincidentally, today's Maven's word-of-the-day suggests some more redundancies: aiding and abetting to have and to hold and... rape and pillage (in the original sense of rape) http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/
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