▪ I. ˈcommonplace, n. and a.
[A rendering of L. locus communis = Gr. κοινὸς τόπος, in Aristotle simply τόπος, explained by Cicero (Inv. ii. xiv. § 47 et seq.) as a general theme or argument applicable to many particular cases. In later times, collections of such general topics were called loci communes. Originally two words, in senses 1–5; afterwards hyphened in senses 3–8; now usually written as one word in senses 5–8, and the closely connected adjective use.
As in similar combinations of two words each having its own accent, the stress has shifted from ˈcommon ˈplace, to ˌcommon-ˈplace, ˈcommon-ˌplace, ˈcommonplace. Walker and Smart have the second; most modern dictionaries have the third or fourth. In composition the shift of stress has generally not proceeded so far.]
A. n.
* As two words.
† 1. With the ancient rhetoricians: A passage of general application, such as may serve as the basis of argument; a leading text cited in argument.
| [1531 Elyot Gov. i. xiv, Hauyng almoste all the places whereof they shall fetche their raisons, called of Oratours loci communes.] 1549 Latimer 3rd Serm. Edw. VI (Arb.) 101, I haue a commune place to the ende, yf my memory fayle me, Beati qui audiunt verbum dei, et custodiunt illud. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 412 b, Alledging out of Scripture itself (besides the common places y{supt} have bene usually set out by others) certein new testimonies culled out by a certein new ingenious pollicy. |
† b. The text of a sermon or discourse; a theme, topic. Obs.
| 1549 Latimer 5th Serm. Edw. VI (Arb.) 136 Thys commune place..was very well handeled the laste Sondaye. 1597 Bacon Ess., Discourse (Arb.) 14 Some haue certaine Common places and Theames, wherein they are good, and want varietie. 1605 ― Adv. Learn. i. iii. §2 It were good to leave the common place in commendation of poverty to some friar to handle. 1617 Donne Serm. cxxxii. V. 370 The fear of God..was a pregnant and a plentiful Common place for him to preach upon. |
† 2. An exercise or thesis on some set theme. Obs.
| 1665 Surv. Aff. Netherl. 168 After they have performed their Sermon and Common-place. 1715 F. Brokesby Life H. Dodwell 19 His Common Places, that is, Exercises like Sermons, which were delivered in the College Chappel, shew him to be a good Scholar. |
3. A striking or notable passage, noted, for reference or use, in a book of common places or commonplace-book.
| [Cf. 1525 Melanchthon Loci Communes; 1527 Eckius Enchiridion Locorum Communium.] 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. Transl. Pref. (1634) 3 Many great learned men have written books of Commonplaces of our Religion, as Melancton, Sarcerius, and other. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes A iij, I have..employed my diligence in collecting these common places. 1656 H. More Antid. Ath. ii. vi. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 211 When all a Student knows of what he reads Is not in's own, but under general Heads Of Common-places. 1704 Swift Mechan. Oper. Spirit (1711) 277 Whatever in my small Reading occurs, concerning this our Fellow-Creature [Ass], I do never fail to set it down by way of Common Place. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 22 ¶6 Having by me, in my Book of Common Places, enough to enable me to finish a very sad one [tragedy] by the Fifth of next month. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 206 ¶15 The only common places of his memory are his meals; and if you ask him at what time an event happened, he considers whether he heard it after a dinner of turbot or venison. 1824 Macaulay Misc. Writ. (Rtldg.) 46 Petrarch. |
† 4. A collection of common places, a commonplace-book. Obs.
| 1565–6 (title), The Sermonde in the Wall, thereunto annexed, the Common Place of Patryk Hamylton. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts Ded. (1673) 7 Gesner relateth every mans opinion, like a common place or dictionary. 1666 (title), Torriano's Common Place of Italian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. 1728 Pope Dunc. i. 139 A folio Common-place..of all his works the base. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vi. ix, The famous story of Alexander and Clytus..entered in my common-place under the title Drunkenness. |
** As one word; ˈcommon-place, ˈcommonplace.
5. A common or ordinary topic; an opinion or statement generally accepted or taken for granted; a stock theme or subject of remark, an every-day saying. Slightingly: A platitude or truism.
| 1560–1 1st Bk. Discip. Ch. Scot. xii. (1836) 72 He must bind himselfe to his text, that he enter not in digression or in explaining common places. 1597 Bacon Coulers Good & Evill No. 10 (Arb.) 153 The common place of extolling the beginning of euery thing. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. x. 176, I know that some have a Common-place against Common-place-books. a 1745 Swift Wks. (1841) II. 120 The trite common-places of servile, injudicious flattery. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 497 The commonplaces which all sects repeat so fluently when they are enduring oppression, and forget so easily when they are able to retaliate it. 1875 Jowett Plato III. 155 The paradoxes of one age often become the commonplaces of the next. |
† b. Applied to a person who is the common topic or theme of remark. Obs.
| 1636 Healey Epictetus' Man. xxix. 34 Prepare thy selfe to bee..the common-place of the multitude of mockers. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1702) I. iv. 230 The Papists were the most Popular Common-place, and the Butt against whom all the Arrows were directed. |
6. Anything common and trite; an ordinary every-day object, action, or occurrence.
| 1802 Wordsw. To Daisy (2nd poem) 5 Thou unassuming Common-place Of Nature, with that homely face. 1850 Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. 83 A man whose eyes are in his head..observes commonplaces, and thinks of them. 1879 Dixon Brit. Cyprus ix. 79 Let me recount the story of a day; a day of common-places. |
7. collect. Commonplace matter; triviality.
| 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. iv. §2 A subject upon which there has been a world of commonplace. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1766) VI. lv. 362 Common subjects afford only commonplace. 1801 Fuseli Lect. Art ii. (1848) 398 Grouping engrossed composition, and poured a deluge of gay common-place over the platfonds, panels, and cupolas. 1866 Motley Dutch Rep. ii. iv. 211 This fine strain of eloquent commonplace. |
8. Commonplace quality, commonplaceness.
| 1842 T. Martin My Namesake in Fraser's Mag. Dec., There is no getting over the commonplace of the cognomen. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. ii. (1875) 74 Where..is the note of provinciality in Addison? I answer, in the common⁓place of his ideas. |
B. adj. [attributive use of A.; originally hyphened, and now written as one word.]
1. Of the nature of a commonplace; having nothing out of the common; devoid of originality or novelty; trite, trivial, hackneyed. a. of persons.
| 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. ii. ii, Ther's Aristotle, a mere common-place fellow. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 11 ¶1 A Common-Place Talker. 1851 Helps Friends in C. ii. 5 Any of those whom we consider common-place people. 1885 Spectator 30 May 704/1 He is never frivolous, though not seldom commonplace and trivial. |
b. of words or things.
| 1699 Bentley Phal. 101 Such common-place stuff..that one cannot tell where nor when they were written. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 155 ¶3 A light Conversation of Common-place Jests. 1802 M. Edgeworth Mor. T. (1816) I. xiv. 112 The most wretched, tame, common-place performance. 1886 Morley H. Martineau Crit. Misc. III. 177 The commonplace virtues of industry and energy. |
2. the commonplace: that which is commonplace, commonplaceness.
| 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xv, A frontless, arrogant, decorous slip of the common-place. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Flow I. 1 The house..was a very type and embodiment of the commonplace. |
C. Comb., as † commonˈplaceman, one who uses common-places (senses 1–3); a dealer in trite sayings; † commonˈplace-wise adv., in the manner of a commonplace.
| 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 366 [He] that collected, common-place-wise, out of S. Chrysostomes Works, those passages, etc. 1622 J. Hume Jewes Deliv. vii. 108, I purpose not to discourse of Prayer common-place-wise. 1627 W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 216 Iustice..whereto also Popish commonplace-men referre mercy, and the workes thereof, as to their head. 1692 Norris Refl. Ess. Hum. Und. 41, I hate your Common-place men of all the Writers in the World. 1826 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 84/2 The exhausted common-placemen, and the afflicted fool. |
Hence commonplaceism commonplaceness; also, a commonplace; commonplacish a., somewhat commonplace. (rare.)
| 1876 Tinsley's Mag. XIX. 599 An amiable, pretty, commonplacish girl. 1857 Chamb. Jrnl. VII. 18 Common⁓placeism per se does not exist. Everybody is interesting to some one or two others. 1882 A. Wilson Evolution vi. 97 The application of the foregoing commonplaceisms. |
▪ II. ˈcommonplace, v.
[f. prec.; senses 1–3 from the n., sense 4 from the adj.]
1. trans. To extract ‘common places’ from; to arrange under or reduce to general heads; to enter in a commonplace-book.
| a 1656 Hales Gold. Rem. (1688) 352 The custom..hitherto, was commonplacing a thing at the first original very plain and simple. a 1740 Felton (J.), I do not apprehend any difficulty in collecting and commonplacing as universal history from the historians. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. II. ii. i. 47 To commonplace all extant Latin authors. 1860 Lowndes' Bibl. Man. 1259 s.v. M. Kempe, In this work the author has commonplaced succinctly..above 1600 writers of divinity. 1887 Illust. Lond. News 12 Mar. 282 When..you come on a passage..worthy of being commonplaced, copy it legibly in your commonplace book. |
| absol. a 1734 North Lives I. 20 It was his lordship's constant practice to commonplace as he read. 1754 Chatham Lett. Nephew 59 In general my advice to you is, not to common-place upon paper. |
† 2. To furnish with commonplaces or authoritative quotations. Obs.
| a 1714 Burnet Own Time (1823) I. 60 Then a head in divinity was to be common placed in Latin and the person was to maintain theses upon it. |
3. intr. To cite, repeat, or utter commonplaces. Also, † to support a thesis: see the n. 2.
| 1609 R. Barnerd Faithf. Shepheard 52 To take euery where occasion to common place vpon anie word. a 1626 Bacon To K. Jas. Wks. VI. 251 (L.) For the good that comes of particular and select committees and commissions, I need not commonplace. 1662 H. More Philos. Writ. Pref. Gen. (1712) 12 It being the very Text upon which my self first common-placed in our College-chappel. 1735 Byrom Rem. (1855) I. ii. 635 Mr. Topham common-placed upon the resurrection of the same body or rather against it. |
4. trans. To render commonplace or trite.
| 1847–8 H. Miller First Impr. ii. (1857) 23 Coldly-read or fantastically-chanted prayers, commonplaced by the twice-a-day repetition of centuries. |
Hence ˈcommonplacing vbl. n.
| 1696 Growth Deism 14 The profound Learning (so he thinks much reading and common-placing to be) of a certain Eminent Divine. 1809–12 M. Edgeworth Ennui vi, In the methods of indexing and common-placing. |