different between hackney vs platitude

English

Etymology

From Middle English hakeney; probably from Hackney (formerly a town, now a borough of London), used for grazing horses before sale, or from Old French haquenee (“ambling mare for ladies”), Latinized in England to hakeneius (though some recent French sources report that the English usage predates the French).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hækni/

Noun

hackney (plural hackneys)

1. (archaic) An ordinary horse.
2. A carriage for hire or a cab.
3. A horse used to ride or drive.
4. A breed of English horse.
5. (archaic) A hired drudge; a hireling; a prostitute.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

hackney (not comparable)

1. Offered for hire.

   hackney coaches

2. (figuratively) Much used; trite; mean.

   hackney authors

   • a. 1685, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, The Ghost of the old House of Commons to the new one appointed to meet at Oxford.

     his accumulative and hackney tongue

Translations

Verb

hackney (third-person singular simple present hackneys, present participle hackneying, simple past and past participle hackneyed)

1. (transitive) To make uninteresting or trite by frequent use.
2. (transitive) To use as a hackney.
3. (transitive) To carry in a hackney coach.

Translations

English

Etymology

From French platitude, from plat (“flat”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from Ancient Greek ??????? (platús).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?plat?tju?d/, /?plat?t?u?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?plæt?t(j)ud/

Noun

platitude (countable and uncountable, plural platitudes)

1. (countable) An often-quoted saying that is supposed to be meaningful but has become unoriginal or hackneyed through overuse; a cliché.
2. (countable) A claim that is trivially true, to the point of being uninteresting.
3. (uncountable) Flatness; lack of change, activity, or deviation.
4. (uncountable) Unoriginality; triteness.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:platitude.

Synonyms

• cliché
• See also Thesaurus:saying

Related terms

Translations

References

• platitude at OneLook Dictionary Search
• platitude in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Dutch

Etymology

From French platitude.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pla?ti?tyd?/

Noun

platitude f (plural platitudes, diminutive platitudetje n)

1. platitude, cliché

French

Etymology

plat (“flat”) +? -itude

Noun

platitude f (uncountable)

1. flatness
   • 1921, Henri-René Lenormand, Le Simoun[3]:

     La chebka. Une immense platitude de pierres. Une sorte de néant jaunâtre, sous un ciel sulfureux.

     The Sebkha. A vast expanse of rocks. A sort of yellowish nothingness under a sulfurous sky.

2. (figuratively) blandness; lack of originality

Further reading

• “platitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Noun

platitude f (plural platitudes)

1. platitude (an overused saying)

   Synonym: clichê

2. platitude; triteness; unoriginality

   Synonym: banalidade