11
TRITE AS A CLICHE
RICHARD LEDERER
Concord, New Ham.pshire
aid in the
'st letters
le when read
lutions at the
I
A cliche is a stale, commonplace, worn out word, phrase, or figure
of speech that many speakers and writers fall into using out of hurry or
sheer laziness.
It is one of the ironies of language that vivid comparisons soon be­
come cliches precisely because they initially express an idea so well.
The se comparisons catch on are picked up by many people, and quickly
become trite and dead in the sense that they no longer strike us as origi­
nal or clever.
I
-E-­
E, E--EE­
EO­
The prevailing triteness in modern writing led the Engl ish novelist
and critic George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984) to lament that II prose
consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning,
and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a pre­
fabr icated henhouse. II
Take the hackneyed formula tl (adjective) as a (noun).'1
Offe r the
fir st half of the phrase and instantly into the minds of almost eve rybody
flashes the second half. If, for example, I say II dead as a ... , II most
readers will say II doornail. tl In fact, this expression has been wheezed
for more than 600 year s, back to at least 1350, when an anonymous poet,
de scr ibing the hunting of a deer, wrote:
I
And happened that I hitt hym be-hynde the left sholdire.
a dornayle was he fallen.
- -A­
-A
- -AI­
~ge
!
Dead as
The very fact that the second half of such compar isons skips so eas­
By into the mind is a danger sign. It means that everyone else would use
the same simile and this is exactly what make s for tritenes s. To prove
my point, I present over one hundred" ... as a ... 11 cliches; see how
many you can complete correctly. The first set is completed by insert­
ing members of the animal kingdom:
J
1.
2.
3.
4.
S.
6.
7.
blind as
brave as
busy as
clean as
crazy as
crazy as
crazy as
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
cross as
drunk as
dumb as
fat as
free as
gentle as
hairy as
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
happy as
happy as
healthy as
hungry as
loose as
mad as
mad as
12
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
naked as
nervous as
plump as
poo r as
proud as
27.
28.
29.
30.
3l.
quiet as
sick as
silly as
slippery as
sly as
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
snug as
strong as
strong as
stubborn as
wise as
FALAL
47.
48.
49.
50.
soft as
sweet as
warm as
wrinkled as
EDWARD
Brookline
Complete the following by using type s of food:
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
American as
brown as
cool as
ea-sy as
flat as
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
nutty as
pleased as
red as
red as
slow as
Honoh
Nassau, 'I
'I I'm
Ha waiL '
Complete the following by using objects often found in the house or
associated with houses:
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
bald as
big as
black as
cute as
dead as
deaf as
dull as
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
hard as
high as
limp as
neat as
pretty as
rough as
safe as
sharp as
smooth as
soft as
stiff as
tight as
tough as
white as
Complete the following by using things found in nature:
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
cold as
dryas
dryas
easy as
fast as
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
fresh as
good as
hard as
hot as
light as
old as
pure as
right as
solid as
Now, for a change in approach, fill in the beginning of each cliche by
inserting the appropriately hackneyed adjective:
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
an ar row
a bell
a bell
Croesus
day
the day is long
the day you were born
a dollar
a drum
a fiddle
a ghost
a hatter
a judge
life
a lord
101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
Ill.
112.
113.
114.
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
Methuselah
a new- born babe
a new penny
night
a pistol
a rail
shootin I
sin
thieves
a tomb
a two- dollar bill
a whip
a whistle
a wink
11
I can
their crafl
ESE, seSE
,. live
a bear in 1
a! So- so
herd and 'i\
miles fran
each time.
11
Coulc
II
11 m
e
t went, )
St, , St. St,
in Orono, I
Albany, m
orado, to E
Coco Co. (
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1
II II d 1 c
formance 0
11
Ta-ta