Cliché

A cliché (from French, IPA: [klɪ'ʃeɪ]) or cliche is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty, especially when at some time it was considered distinctively forceful or novel. The term is likely to be used in a negative context. It is frequently used in modern culture to reference an action or idea that is expected or predictable based on a prior event.

Other meanings

A cliché is also a term historically used in printing, for a printing plate cast from movable type. This is also called a stereotype. When letters were set one at a time it made sense to cast a phrase used over and again as one single slug of metal. That constantly repeated phrase was known as a cliché.

Further reading

• Anton C. Zijderveld (1979). On Clichés: The Supersedure of Meaning by Function in Modernity. Routledge. ISBN 071000186X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |isbn13= ignored (help)
• Margery Sabin (1987). "The Life of English Idiom, the Laws of French Cliché". The Dialect of the Tribe. Oxford University Press US. pp. 10–25. ISBN 0195041534. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |isbn13= ignored (help)
• Veronique Traverso and Denise Pessah (Summer 2000). "Stereotypes et cliches: Langue, discours, societe". Poetics Today. 21 (3). Duke University Press: 463–465.
• Skorczewski, Dawn (December 2000). ""Everybody Has Their Own Ideas": Responding to Cliche in Student Writing". College Composition and Communication. 52 (2): 220–239.
• Ruth Amossy and Terese Lyons (1982). "The Cliché in the Reading Process". SubStance. 11 (2.35). University of Wisconsin Press: 34–45.

See also

• Anti-cliché
• Archetype
• Description
• Glitterary
• Idiom
• Simile
• Snowclone
• Stereotype
• Stock character
• Thought-terminating cliché

External links

• A list of clichés in films
• Figures of Speech
• Clichés: Avoid Them Like the Plague