different between unexciting vs commonplace

English

Etymology

un- +? exciting

Adjective

unexciting (comparative more unexciting, superlative most unexciting)

1. Not exciting
   • 1992 April 5, "The Full House", Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 2:

     B. Wooster: Of all the places on this great planet of ours, West Neck, Long Island, has chosen to be the most unexciting. The last time anything remotely interesting happened here was in 1842, when a tree fell over. They still talk about it in the village.

English

Etymology

A calque of Latin locus comm?nis, referring to a generally applicable literary passage, itself a calque of Ancient Greek ?????? ????? (koinòs tópos).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?m?n?ple?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m?n?ple?s/
• Hyphenation: com?mon?place

Adjective

commonplace (comparative more commonplace, superlative most commonplace)

1. Ordinary; not having any remarkable characteristics.

   Synonyms: routine, undistinguished, unexceptional; see also Thesaurus:hackneyed

   Antonyms: distinguished, inimitable, unique

Translations

Noun

commonplace (plural commonplaces)

1. A platitude or cliché.
2. Something that is ordinary; something commonly done or occurring.
3. A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.
   • 1710, Jonathan Swift, A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit

     Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of common-place.

4. A commonplace book.

Translations

Verb

commonplace (third-person singular simple present commonplaces, present participle commonplacing, simple past and past participle commonplaced)

1. To make a commonplace book.
2. To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads.
   • 1711, Henry Felton, Dissertation on Reading the Classics

     I do not apprehend any difficulty in collecting and commonplacing an universal history from the […] historians.

3. (obsolete) To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

Related terms

• commonplace book