Page "Pleonasm" Paragraph 83

Conversely, to English speakers who do not know Spanish, there is nothing redundant about " the La Brea tar pits " because the name " La Brea " is opaque: the speaker does not know that it is Spanish for " the tar ".

Similarly, even though scuba stands for " self-contained underwater breathing apparatus ", a phrase like " the scuba gear " would probably not be considered pleonastic because " scuba " has been reanalyzed into English as a simple adjective, and is no longer used as a noun.

( Most do not even know that it is an acronym, and do not spell it SCUBA or S. C. U. B. A.

See radar and laser for similar examples.