cliché French · revision 15708

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1809, Wailly}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kli.ʃe/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cliché''' ''m'' (plural clichés)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the past participle, used as a noun, of [[clicher|t=to stereotype]] (1803).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The verb's origin is uncertain:^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) it may come from an onomatopoeia “klitch-” imitating the sound of the die striking the molten metal,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|2, 788b) or, less probably, from [[gmh|klitsch|t=soft mass]], itself onomatopoeic.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Wailly's vocabulary (1809) records it as a printing term, a metal plate cast from type.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==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.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989) 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.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ From the printing sense, by 1866–1869 it meant a hackneyed phrase or idea, endlessly reproduced; it is now used in apposition, ''phrase cliché''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) English borrowed ''cliché'' in this sense.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1803 – ''Clicher'' (Boiste).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1809 – ''Cliché'' and ''clichage'', printing terms.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1835 – ''Clicheur''^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi); ''cliché'' in the Académie.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi)

+ * 1865 – A photographic negative.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ * 1866–1869 – A hackneyed phrase.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(printing)'' A [[m|en|stereotype]] plate, a cast plate for printing.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(photography)'' A [[m|en|negative]]; by extension, a photograph or [[m|en|snapshot]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A hackneyed phrase or idea; a [[m|en|cliché]], [[m|en|commonplace]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[clicher]]

+ * [[en|cliché]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The GLLF also records a popular feminine ''la cliché'' “diarrhoea” (1836), from the same onomatopoeia.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}