banality
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From French banalité, from banal, equivalent to banal + -ity.
Pronunciation[edit]
- enPR: bənăl'ĭti, IPA(key): /bəˈnælɪti/
- Rhymes: -ælɪti
- enPR: bānăl'ĭti, IPA(key): /beɪˈnælɪti/
- Rhymes: -ælɪti
Noun[edit]
banality (countable and uncountable, plural banalities)
- (uncountable) The quality of being banal.
- Synonym: (partial) bathos
- 1997, Edward S. Herman, Triumph of the Market: Essays on Economics, Politics, and the Media, Black Rose Books Ltd., →ISBN, page 97:
- The concept of the banality of evil came into prominence following the publication of Hannah Arendt's 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which was based on the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem.
- (countable) Something which is banal.
- (rare, historical) A feudal right or obligation, especially the obligation for a peasant to grind grain at the lord's mill, or the profits accruing from such rights.
- 1892, William Klapp Williams, The Dawn of Italian Independence: Italy from the Congress of Vienna, 1814, to the Fall of Venice, 1849, volume 1, page 176:
- The law of banality, one of the most oppressive products of feudalism, was revived for the advantage of the nobility.
- 1984, Sheldon J. Watts, A Social History of Western Europe, 1450–1720: Tensions and Solidarities among Rural People, page 106:
- Other banalities included the lord's exclusive right to hunt over the land, his monopoly over fishing, and his right to keep the dove-cote whose feathery occupants ate a peasant's standing crops.
- 1986, Pierre Goubert, translated by Ian Patterson, The French Peasantry in the Seventeenth Century, page 218:
- In fact corvées, champarts, and rights of banality not only continued but had been increased in the course of the seventeenth century.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
quality of being banal
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something which is banal
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Further reading[edit]
- “banality”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “banality”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms suffixed with -ity
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ælɪti
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with historical senses