different between tortuous vs trite

English

Etymology

From Middle English tortuous, tortuose, from Anglo-Norman and Old French tortuos, from Latin tortu?sus, from tortus (“a twisting, winding”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??t??u??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??t??u?s/

Adjective

tortuous (comparative more tortuous, superlative most tortuous)

1. (often figuratively) Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.
   • 2007 October 6, “Slogging on the Home Front”, editorial in The New York Times,

     It still takes almost half a year for the average veteran’s claim for disability benefits to be decided in a tortuous process that can involve four separate hearings.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Volume 1, Porter & Coates, p. 243:

     The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.
2. (astrology) Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely.
   • 1872, Walter William Skeat, Chaucer's A Treatise on the Astrolabe

     Infortunate ascendent tortuous.

3. (obsolete) Injurious; tortious.

Usage notes

• This term has strongly negative connotations, perhaps transferred from the similar-sounding adjective torturous.
• Not to be confused with the legal term tortious.

Related terms

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?t, IPA^(key): /t?a?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Etymology 1

From Latin tr?tus "worn out," a form of the verb ter? (“I wear away, wear out”).

Adjective

trite (comparative triter, superlative tritest)

1. Often in reference to a word or phrase: used so many times that it is commonplace, or no longer interesting or effective; worn out, hackneyed.
   • 1897, W. B. Kimberly, History of West Australia : A Narrative of Her Past together with Biographies of Her Leading Men:

     It is a trite saying in a young country that anyone starting out in life with the determination to become wealthy will have his wish gratified.

   • 2007, Danielle Corsetto, Girls with Slingshots: 267:

     McPedro the cactus: How to woo a woman! On yehr fahrst date, don’t bring her cut flowers! That’s inhumane! And trite!

2. (law) So well established as to be beyond debate: trite law.
   • 2017, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Taucar v Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, 2017 ONSC 2604:

     It is trite to say that the mere fact that a decision does not favour the applicant or that the applicant disagrees with the decision does not establish that the decision is tainted with bias.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hackneyed

Translations

See also

• cliché

Etymology 2

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

trite (uncountable)

1. A denomination of coinage in ancient Greece equivalent to one third of a stater.
2. Trite, a genus of spiders, found in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, of the family Salticidae.

Translations

Further reading

• Trite (spider) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• tetri, titer, titre

Italian

Adjective

trite

1. feminine plural of trito

Anagrams

• retti, ritte, tetri

Latin

Participle

tr?te

1. vocative masculine singular of tr?tus

References

• trite in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• trite in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Tocharian B

Etymology

Compare Tocharian A trit

Adjective

trite

1. third