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Platitude
A platitude is a trite, meaningless, or prosaic statement, often used as a thought-terminating cliché, aimed at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease. The statement may be true, but its meaning has been lost due to its excessive use. Platitudes often take the form of tautologies, e.g., "it is what it is", making them appear vacuously true. But the phrase is used to mean "there is no way of changing it", which is no longer a tautology: "Structuring the sentiment as a tautology allows it to appear inescapable." At the same time, some phrases that have become platitudes may provide useful moral guidance, such as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Others, though widely trivialized, may be thought-provoking, such as "Be the change you wish to see in the world". Etymology The word is a borrowing from the French compound ''platitude'', from ''plat'' 'flat' + ''-(i)tude'' '-ness', thus 'flatness'. The figurative sense is first attested in French in 1694 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliché
A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning, referring to an expression imposed by conventionalized linguistic usage. The term is often used in modern culture for an action or idea that is expected or predictable, based on a prior event. Typically pejorative, "clichés" may or may not be true. Some are stereotypes, but some are simply truisms and facts. Clichés often are employed for comedic effect, typically in fiction. Most phrases now considered clichéd originally were regarded as striking but have lost their force through overuse. The French poet Gérard de Nerval once said, "The first man who compared woman to a rose was a poet, the second, an imbecile." A cliché is often a vivid d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truism
A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device, and is the opposite of falsism. In philosophy, a sentence which asserts incomplete truth conditions for a proposition may be regarded as a truism. An example of such a sentence would be "Under appropriate conditions, the sun rises." Without contextual supporta statement of what those appropriate conditions arethe sentence is true but incontestable. Lapalissades, such as "If he were not dead, he would still be alive", are considered to be truisms. See also * Aphorism * Axiom * Cliché * Contradiction * Dictum * Dogma * Figure of speech * Maxim * Moral * Platitude * Synthetic proposition Synthetic things are composed of multiple parts, often with the implication that they are artificial. In particular, 'synthetic' may refer to: Science * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Syn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tautophrase
A tautophrase is a phrase or sentence that repeats an idea in the same words. The name was coined in 2006 by William Safire in ''The New York Times''. Examples include: * "Brexit means Brexit" (Theresa May) * "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." (John Wayne) * "It ain't over 'till it's over" (Yogi Berra) * "What's done is done." (Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'') * "I am that I am." (God, Exodus 3:14) * "Tomorrow is tomorrow" (Antigone (Sophocles)) * "A rose is a rose is a rose." (Gertrude Stein) * "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." (Sigmund Freud) * "A man's a man for a' that." (Robert Burns) * "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam!" (Popeye) * "Cars are cars." (Paul Simon song title) * "Let bygones be bygones." * "Facts are facts." * "Enough is enough." * "A deal is a deal is a deal." * "Once it's gone it's gone." * " It is what it is." * "Boys will be boys." * "A win is a win." * "You do you." * "''A la guerre comme à la guerre''" — A French phrase literally meaning "at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tautology (language)
In literary criticism and rhetoric, a tautology is a statement that repeats an idea, using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, effectively "saying the same thing twice". Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature. Like pleonasm, tautology is often considered a fault of style when unintentional. Intentional repetition may emphasize a thought or help the listener or reader understand a point. Sometimes logical tautologies like "Boys will be boys" are conflated with language tautologies, but a language tautology is not inherently true, while a logical tautology always is. Etymology The word was coined in Hellenistic Greek from ('the same') plus ('word' or 'idea'), and transmitted through 3rd-century Latin and French . It first appeared in English in the 16th century. The use of the term logical tautology was introduced in English by Wittgenstein in 1919, perhaps following Auguste Comte's usage in 1835. Examples * "Only time will tell if w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superficiality
What social psychologists call "the principle of superficiality versus depth" has pervaded Western culture since at least the time of Plato. Historical sketch Socrates sought to convince his debaters to turn from the superficiality of a worldview based on the acceptance of convention to the examined life of philosophy, founded (as Plato at least considered) upon the underlying Ideas. For more than two millennia, there was in the Platonic wake a general valorisation of critical thought over the superficial subjectivity that refused deep analysis. The salon style of the Précieuses might for a time affect superficiality, and play with the possibility of treating serious topics in a light-hearted fashion; but the prevailing western consensus firmly rejected elements such as everyday chatter or the changing vagaries of fashion as superficial distractions from a deeper reality. Modernist cross-currents By contrast, Nietzsche opened the modernist era with a self-conscious praise of sup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thought-terminating Cliché
A thought-terminating cliché (also known as a semantic stop-sign, a thought-stopper, bumper sticker logic, or cliché thinking) is a form of loaded language, often passing as folk wisdom, intended to end an argument and quell cognitive dissonance. Its function is to stop an argument from proceeding further, ending the debate with a cliché rather than a point. Some such clichés are not inherently terminating; they only become so when used to intentionally dismiss dissent or justify fallacious logic. The term was popularized by Robert Jay Lifton in his 1961 book ''Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism,'' who referred to the use of the cliché, along with "loading the language", as "the language of non-thought". Origin and definitions The earliest recorded definition of the term was published in Robert Jay Lifton's book ''Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism'' in 1961 wherein he was describing the structure of language used by the Chinese Communist Party, de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines a slogan as "a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising." A slogan usually has the attributes of being memorable, very concise and appealing to the audience. Etymology The word slogan is derived from ''slogorn'' which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic and Irish language, Irish ''sluagh-ghairm'' (''sluagh'' "army", "host" + ''gairm'' "cry").Merriam-Webster (2003), p. 1174. Irish Slogans vary from the written and the visual to the chanted and the vulgar. Their simple rhetorical nature usually leaves little room for detail, and a chanted slogan may serve more as social expression of unified purpose than as communication to an intended a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snowclone
A snowclone is a cliché and phrasal template that can be used and recognized in multiple variants. The term was coined as a neologism in 2004, derived from journalistic clichés that referred to the number of Inuit words for snow. History and derivation The linguistic phenomenon of "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants" was originally described by linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum in 2003. Pullum later described snowclones as "some-assembly-required adaptable cliché frames for lazy journalists". In an October 2003 post on ''Language Log'', a collaborative blog by several linguistics professors, Pullum solicited ideas for what the then-unnamed phenomenon should be called. In response to the request, the word "snowclone" was coined by economics professor Glen Whitman on January 15, 2004, and Pullum endorsed it as a term of art the next day. The term was der ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saw (saying)
A saw is an old saying or commonly repeated phrase or idea; a conventional wisdom. While "old saw" is a common phrase for "saw", some consider it a tautology. Among various synonyms for "saying", dictionaries from 18th century singled out "saw" as a vulgar, uneducated wisdom, often based in superstitions."English Synonymes: With Copious Illustrations and Explanations" (1863p. 211/ref> This flavor is seen in the expressions "old women's saws" and "old wife's saws". See also *Aphorism *Folklore *Maxim (philosophy) * Old wives' tale *Proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbia ... References Phrases {{Ling-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demagogue
A demagogue (from Greek , a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from , people, populace, the commons + leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, appealing to emotion by scapegoating out-groups, exaggerating dangers to stoke fears, lying for emotional effect, or other rhetoric that tends to drown out reasoned deliberation and encourage fanatical popularity. Demagogues overturn established norms of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so. Historian Reinhard Luthin defined ''demagogue'' as "...a politician skilled in oratory, flattery and invective; evasive in discussing vital issues; promising everything to everybody; appealing to the passions rather than the reason of the public; and arousing racial, religious, and class prejudices – a man whose lust for power without recourse to principle leads him to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thought-terminating Cliché
A thought-terminating cliché (also known as a semantic stop-sign, a thought-stopper, bumper sticker logic, or cliché thinking) is a form of loaded language, often passing as folk wisdom, intended to end an argument and quell cognitive dissonance. Its function is to stop an argument from proceeding further, ending the debate with a cliché rather than a point. Some such clichés are not inherently terminating; they only become so when used to intentionally dismiss dissent or justify fallacious logic. The term was popularized by Robert Jay Lifton in his 1961 book ''Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism,'' who referred to the use of the cliché, along with "loading the language", as "the language of non-thought". Origin and definitions The earliest recorded definition of the term was published in Robert Jay Lifton's book ''Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism'' in 1961 wherein he was describing the structure of language used by the Chinese Communist Party, de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buzzword
A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used to impress others. Some "buzzwords" retain their true technical meaning when used in the correct contexts, for example artificial intelligence. Buzzwords often originate in jargon, acronyms, or neologisms.Grammar.About.com - definition of buzzword Examples of overworked business buzzwords include ''synergy'', ''vertical'', ''dynamic'', ''cyber'' and ''strategy''. It has been stated that es could not operate without buzzwords, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
