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Origin and history of trite

trite(adj.)

"used till so common as to have lost its novelty and interest," 1540s, from Latin tritus "worn, oft-trodden," of language "much-used, familiar, commonplace," past-participle adjective from terere "to rub, wear down" (from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn"). Use of the word in the etymological sense of "rubbed, frayed, worn" (1590s) is rare in English and now obsolete. Related: Tritely; triteness.

also from 1540s

Entries linking to trite

*tere-(1)

*terə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, also to boring, drilling, piercing; and to the rubbing of cereal grain to remove the husks, and thus to threshing.

It might form all or part of: atresia; attorn; attorney; attrition; contour; contrite; detour; detriment; diatribe; drill (v.) "bore a hole;" lithotripsy; return; septentrion; thrash; thread; thresh; throw; threshold; trauma; trepan; tribadism; tribology; tribulation; trite; triticale; triturate; trout; trypsin; tryptophan; turn.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit turah "wounded, hurt;" Greek teirein "to rub, rub away;" Latin terere "to rub, thresh, grind, wear away," tornus "turning lathe;" Old Church Slavonic tiro "to rub;" Lithuanian trinu, trinti "to rub," Old Irish tarathar "borer," Welsh taraw "to strike."

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    banal
    "trite, commonplace," 1840, from French banal, "belonging to a manor; common, hackneyed, commonplace," from Old French banel "communal" (13c.), from ban "decree; legal control; announcement; authorization; payment for use of a communal oven, mill, etc.," from a Germanic source, f
    commonplace
    1540s, "a statement generally accepted," a literal translation of Latin locus communis, itself a translation of Greek koinos topos "general topic," in logic, "general theme applicable to many particular cases." See common (adj.) + place (n.). Meaning "memorandum of something that
    stock
    Middle English stok, from Old English stocc "stump, wooden post, stake; trunk of a living tree; log," also "pillory" (usually plural, stocks), from Proto-Germanic *stauk- "tree trunk" (source also of Old Norse stokkr "block of wood, trunk of a tree," Old Saxon, Old Frisian stok,
    platitude
    Meaning "a flat, dull, trite, or commonplace remark," especially a truism uttered as if it were a novelty, is recorded from...
    cliche
    [OED] Figurative extension to "trite phrase, worn-out expression" is first attested 1888, via the notion of the metal plate...
    stale
    The figurative sense (in reference to immaterial things) "old and trite, hackneyed" is recorded from 1560s....
    daffodil
    1540s, "asphodel," a variant of Middle English affodill "asphodel" (c. 1400), from Medieval Latin affodillus, from Latin asphodelus, from Greek asphodelos, which is of unknown origin. The initial d- is perhaps from merging of the article in Dutch de affodil, the Netherlands being
    profound
    c. 1300, "characterized by intellectual depth, very learned," from Old French profont, profund (12c., Modern French profond) and directly from Latin profundus "deep, bottomless, vast," also "obscure; profound; immoderate," from pro "forth" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward") + fu
    class
    c. 1600, "group of students," in U.S. especially "number of pupils in a school or college of the same grade," from French classe (14c.), from Latin classis "a class, a division; army, fleet," especially "any one of the six orders into which Servius Tullius divided the Roman peopl
    nature
    late 13c., "restorative powers of the body, bodily processes; powers of growth;" from Old French nature "nature, being, principle of life; character, essence," from Latin natura "course of things; natural character, constitution, quality; the universe," literally "birth," from na

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