cliché English · revision 84

+ ==Etymology==

+ Recorded in English from 1825 in the printing sense “stereotype block”,^(Etymonline)^(RHWU) [[bor|fr|cliché]], the past participle of [[fr|clicher|t=to make a stereotype plate]] used as a noun,^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) a variant of ''cliquer'' “to click”,^(OED 1989) said to imitate the sound of the matrix striking the molten metal.^(AHD)^(RHWU)

+

+ The figurative sense “trite phrase” is first attested in 1888, from the idea of a plate that reproduces the same print endlessly, as with [[stereotype]];^(Etymonline) it was not common in English until the 1920s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Noun==

+ '''cliché'''

+

+ # A phrase or idea used so often that it has lost its force.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+ # An overused theme, character, or situation in art or literature.^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+ # ''(printing)'' A stereotype or electrotype plate.^(OED 1989)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Adjective==

+ '''cliché'''

+

+ # Trite, hackneyed.^(OED 1989)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}