different between vapid vs commonplace

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vapidus (“flat, vapid”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?væp.?d/, /?ve?p.?d/

Adjective

vapid (comparative more vapid, superlative most vapid)

1. Offering nothing that is stimulating or challenging.
2. Lifeless, dull, or banal.
   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the Second, page 30 ?ISBN

     Then there was a little more trite conversation between Mr. Arabin and Mr. Harding; trite, and hard, and vapid, and senseless.

3. Tasteless, bland, or insipid.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:boring, Thesaurus:wearisome, Thesaurus:soporific

Derived terms

• vapidity
• vapidly
• vapidness

Translations

Anagrams

• pavid

Estonian

Noun

vapid

1. nominative plural of vapp

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