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"commonplace"
Definition: 1. A statement or bit of knowledge that is commonly shared among a given audience or community.
2. An elementary exercise, or progymnasmata. (See What Are the Progymnasmata?)
3. In invention, another term for a common topic.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "generally applicable literary passage"
Examples and Observations:
- "It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
(James Madison)
- "The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections."
(Alexis de Tocqueville)
- "But at the same time, the commonplace statement about them is true: every character is the hero of his own story. Each has a justification for his actions that is convincing to him. It's fun to give these people voices."
(Thomas Perry)
- "Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet's job. The rest is literature."
(Jean Cocteau)
- "Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time."
(Michael Ende)
- "It is common knowledge today that intestinal putrefaction causes brain fatigue, often reducing efficiency 50 per cent and more."
(advertising campaign for Pillsbury Health Bran)
- "It is an accepted commonplace in psychology that the spiritual level of people acting as a crowd is far lower than the mean of each individual's intelligence or morality."
(Christian L. Lange)
 Pronunciation: KOM-un-plase |
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