commonplace

A calque of Latin locus commūnis, referring to a generally applicable literary passage, itself is a calque of Ancient Greek κοινός τόπος (koinós tópos).

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commonplace (comparative more commonplace, superlative most commonplace)

1. Ordinary; not having any remarkable characteristics.

   Synonyms: routine, undistinguished, unexceptional; see also Thesaurus:hackneyed

   Antonyms: distinguished, inimitable, unique

   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 7, in St. Ronan's Well:

     "This Mr. Tyrrel," she said, in a tone of authoritative decision, "seems after all a very ordinary sort of person, quite a commonplace man."

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:

     In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

   • 1911, Joseph Conrad, chapter 1, in Under Western Eyes:

     I could get hold of nothing but of some commonplace phrases, those futile phrases that give the measure of our impotence before each other's trials.

commonplace (plural commonplaces)

1. A platitude or cliché.
   • 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 17, in Active Service:

     Finally he began to mutter some commonplaces which meant nothing particularly.

   • 1910, Elinor Glyn, chapter 4, in His Hour:

     And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.

2. Something that is ordinary.
   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Case of Identity" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:

     "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence."

3. A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.
   • Jonathan Swift

     Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace.

4. A commonplace book.

commonplace (third-person singular simple present commonplaces, present participle commonplacing, simple past and past participle commonplaced)

1. To make a commonplace book.
2. To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.
   • Felton

     I do not apprehend any difficulty in collecting and commonplacing an universal history from the historians.

3. (obsolete) To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.
   • 1910, Elinor Glyn, chapter 4, in His Hour:

     And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

• commonplace book