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The Origin of Cliches

November 28, 2009 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 2 COMMENTS

Russell Davies offers up an interesting bit of etymology (at least I think it would count as etymology):

Which reminded me of the origins of the word 'cliche' - in the days of movable type it meant a set of letters/words that were used together so frequently that the printer didn't bother dismantling them. Which got me think about the cliches we're building, and about one in particular - the screen.

I enjoyed that one. The rest of the post/presentation is worth reading as well.

Tags: history, language


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COMMENTS

1David Sanger

Nice but incorrect etymology for cliché.

Eric Partridge's classic work Origins notes that cliché comes from the French verb clicher, to stereotype

November 30, 2009

2harris

Not incorrect.

In printing, a cliché and a stereotype are the exact same thing.

November 30, 2009