Platitude
From Nordan Symposia
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Origin
French, from plat flat, dull
Definitions
- 1: the quality or state of being dull or insipid
- 2: a banal, trite, or stale remark
Description
A platitude is a trite, meaningless, biased, or prosaic statement, often presented as if it were significant and original. The word derives from plat, the French word for "flat." Whether any given statement is considered to have meaning is highly subjective, so platitude is often—but not always—used as a pejorative term to describe seemingly profound statements that a certain person views as unoriginal or shallow. Examples of statements which could be considered platitudes could be "The power of friendship", "Go with the flow", "Everything happens for a reason", "It is what it is!", "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be", and "We need to do what we can do."
