platitude

See also: Platitüde

English

WOTD – 8 January 2007

Etymology

From French platitude, from plat (“flat”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from Ancient Greek πλᾰτῠ́ς (platús).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplatɪtjuːd/, /ˈplatɪtʃuːd/
• IPA^(key): /ˈplætɪt(j)ud/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

platitude (countable and uncountable, plural platitudes)

1. (countable) 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.

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (countable) A claim that is trivially true, to the point of being uninteresting.
3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (uncountable) Flatness.
4. (uncountable) Unoriginality; triteness.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:platitude.

Synonyms

• cliché
• See also Thesaurus:saying

Translations

often-quoted saying

• Armenian: ծեծված արտահայտություն (cecvac artahaytutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: изтъркана фраза f (iztǎrkana fraza)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 老生常談／老生常谈 (zh) (lǎoshēngchángtán), 老生常谈 (zh) (lǎoshēngchángtán), 陳詞濫調／陈词滥调 (zh) (chéncílàndiào), 陈词滥调 (zh) (chéncílàndiào)

• Czech: klišé (cs) n
• Dutch: platitude (nl), cliché (nl)
• Esperanto: kliŝo (eo), banalaĵo
• Finnish: klisee (fi), latteus (fi)
• French: platitude (fr) f
• Galician: tópico m
• German: Plattitüde (de) f
• Greek: κοινοτυπία (el) f (koinotypía)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: közhely (hu)
• Icelandic: gömul tugga f, margþvæld tugga f, innantómur frasi m
• Italian: luogo comune (it)
• Japanese: 陳腐な言葉 (chinpu na kotoba), 在り来りの発言 (arikitari no hatsugen)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: platthet (no) m or f, alminnenlighet m or f

• Persian: حرف کلیشه‌ای (harf-e kelišei)
• Portuguese: platitude (pt) f, clichê (pt) m, chavão (pt) m, lugar-comum m
• Russian: изби́тая фра́за f (izbítaja fráza)
• Spanish: perogrullada (es), tópico (es), lugar común m
• Swedish: plattityd (sv), floskel (sv)

triteness

• Armenian: տափակություն (hy) (tapʻakutʻyun)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陳腐／陈腐 (zh) (chénfǔ), 陈腐 (zh) (chénfǔ), 乏味 (zh) (fáwèi)

• Czech: banalita (cs) f
• Dutch: platitude (nl), cliché (nl)
• Esperanto: banaleco
• Finnish: latteus (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Plattitüde (de) f
• Greek: κοινοτυπία (el) f (koinotypía)
• Italian: banalità (it)
• Portuguese: platitude (pt) f, banalidade (pt) f
• Russian: бана́льность (ru) f (banálʹnostʹ)
• Spanish: obviedad (es) f, trivialidad
• Swedish: plattityd (sv), banalitet (sv)

References

• “platitude”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “platitude”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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Dutch

Etymology

From French platitude.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plaːtiˈtydə/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

platitude f (plural platitudes, diminutive platitudetje n)

1. platitude, cliché

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French

Etymology

plat (“flat”) +‎ -itude

Noun

platitude f (uncountable)

1. flatness
   • 1921, Henri-René Lenormand, Le Simoun[3]:

     La chebka. Une immense platitude de pierres. Une sorte de néant jaunâtre, sous un ciel sulfureux.

     The Sebkha. A vast expanse of rocks. A sort of yellowish nothingness under a sulfurous sky.

2. (figuratively) blandness; lack of originality

Further reading

• “platitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Portuguese

Noun

platitude f (plural platitudes)

1. platitude (an overused saying)
2. platitude; triteness; unoriginality

Synonyms

• (overused saying): clichê
• (triteness): banalidade