Thursday, September 1, 2011

That's so cliche(d)!







Darla-Jean Weatherford said...

As one might approve just about any noun that gets used meaningfully as a verb, right? Like book learning or blog post or school days or elephant soup?

Kay L. Davies said...

I've heard and read it used as an adjective (with or without the d) so often that "so cliche" is becoming cliche itself. LOL
— K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

Anonymous said...

To me it sounds wrong either way, or rather if I use it either way I know it will sound wrong to some people: "that's so clichéd" sounds wrong because in French cliché is already a participle, and "that's so cliché" sounds like a showoff-y usage that will go over some people's heads. (Then there's "sautéd" ...)

Jonathon said...

I'll admit to not liking cliched, but that's probably the result of taking a few years of French. In French cliche is already a participial adjective, so the d is unnecessary.

But, of course, we don't speak French, and it's common enough in English to take nouns (because that's what cliche originally was) and turn them into participial adjectives by adding -(e)d. So I should probably get over it.

Stan said...

I have no objection to either form, with or without the accent.

A fussy college professor declaring that words he doesn't like aren't words? That's clichéd.

Marc Leavitt said...

I really just don't like cliche as an adjective(without the accent); the trend has always been to add the -ed, but language isn't logical. We say "the hoi poloi," when in fact, the phrase in Classical Greek already contains the article (hoi). I guess I'll get used to cliche. What I like even less is the trend toward clipping, as in "Fail" and "Easton Ave." I'm not a peevologist, but I do have to count to ten when I see the latter.

Anonymous said...

"fail" seems like a joke of the digital age, originally meant to evoke an error message from a machine.

In contrast, "Easton Ave" may not be very recent. (I assume you mean that you dislike the use of the abbreviation "Ave." for "Avenue" in speaking.) I wonder how long Bostonians have been saying Mass Ave. Not to mention Dot Ave.

John Lawler said...

The form cliched or clichéd is a standard past participle use meaning "provided with clichés". It's the sort of thing that will re-occur to each generation and keep the controversy going.

One quite regular variety of verbed nouns in English is the Provisional, like the verbs to shingle, to seed, to bell, to asterisk, to tar, to feather, as in a newly-shingled house, a late-seeded field, an unbelled cat, three asterisked sentences, etc.

A provisional verbing of [Noun] makes an obligatorily transitive verb that means "to provide [Direct Object] with [Noun]". This is often extended to mean "to provide [Direct Object] with a lot of [Noun]" or, in the case of a pejorative [Noun], as here, "... with way too much [Noun]".

But, if cliché has become a mass adjective that can apply to a cliché-studded document or utterance, or even a new fashion collection, then it'll compete with the participial usage, and will sound like clipping to those who have discovered the participial usage. Parsing wars, anyone?

Mo said...

"the cliché view of human situations" seems an uncertain citation?

It could just as easily be a noun-as-adjective modifier there: cf "the government view of human situations" rather than "governmental".

Cord Wainer said...

Your footnote is puzzling.

Surely there are archives for both sources: Miami Herald and People magazine?

Jan said...

Cord Wainer: I mean that we don't know for sure whether the quoted sources said "cliche" or "cliched," since the listener transcribing the quotes might simply write down the version s/he expected to hear.