cliché

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kli.ʃe/^[1]

Forms

cliché m (plural clichés)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle, used as a noun, of clicher (“to stereotype”) (1803).^[2][3][4][5] The verb's origin is uncertain:^[2][3] it may come from an onomatopoeia “klitch-” imitating the sound of the die striking the molten metal,^[2][3][5][6] or, less probably, from Middle High German klitsch (“soft mass”), itself onomatopoeic.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wailly's vocabulary (1809) records it as a printing term, a metal plate cast from type.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The printers' cliché is a plate bearing in relief a page of type or a picture, from which many copies can be printed.^[8][7] In photography it became the negative from which prints are made (1865), and by extension any photograph, a sense that has almost driven out the printing one.^[3][8][9]

From the printing sense, by 1866–1869 it meant a hackneyed phrase or idea, endlessly reproduced; it is now used in apposition, phrase cliché.^[2][3] English borrowed cliché in this sense.^[1]

Timeline

• 1803 – Clicher (Boiste).^[2][3]
• 1809 – Cliché and clichage, printing terms.^[2][5]
• 1835 – Clicheur^[5][2]; cliché in the Académie.^[5][2]
• 1865 – A photographic negative.^[3][8]
• 1866–1869 – A hackneyed phrase.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (printing) A stereotype plate, a cast plate for printing.^[8][1]
2. (photography) A negative; by extension, a photograph or snapshot.^[8][9]
3. (figurative) A hackneyed phrase or idea; a cliché, commonplace.^[8][9]

Related words

• clicher
• English cliché

Usage notes

The GLLF also records a popular feminine la cliché “diarrhoea” (1836), from the same onomatopoeia.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 788b
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)