platitude
See also: Platitüde
English
Etymology
From French platitude, from plat (“flat”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from Ancient Greek πλᾰτῠ́ς (platús).
Pronunciation
Noun
platitude (plural platitudes)
- An often-quoted saying that is supposed to be meaningful but has become unoriginal or hackneyed through overuse; a cliché.
- 1918, Algernon Blackwood, chapter XI, in The Garden of Survival:
- Beauty, I suppose, opens the heart, extends the consciousness. It is a platitude, of course.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “2/1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days[1]:
- Semiramis was the first woman to invent eunuchs and women have had sympathy for them ever since; […] and women can tell them what they can't tell other men. And Ivor, suddenly cheered by laughing at his absurd platitudes, and finding himself by the door, was going from the room.
- 2019 August 30, Jonathan Watts, “Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN”, in The Guardian[2]:
- For most of the past three decades, the natural world was treated almost as an afterthought by world leaders. If discussed at all, it was with platitudes about the need to save polar bears and tigers.
- Unoriginality; triteness.
- A claim that is trivially true, to the point of being uninteresting.
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:platitude.
Synonyms
- cliché
- See also Thesaurus:saying
Translations
often-quoted saying
|
triteness
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Dutch
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
platitude f (plural platitudes, diminutive platitudetje n)
Portuguese
Noun
platitude f (plural platitudes)
- platitude (an overused saying)
- platitude; triteness; unoriginality
Synonyms
- (overused saying): clichê
- (triteness): banalidade
Categories:
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- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
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- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- Dutch terms derived from French
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- Portuguese lemmas
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