banally









banally


adjective

  1. devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite: a banal and sophomoric treatment of courage on the frontier.

adjective

  1. lacking force or originality; trite; commonplace
adj.

“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.” (see ban (v.)). The modern sense evolved from the word’s use in designating things like ovens or mills that belonged to feudal serfs, or else compulsory military service; in either case it was generalized in French through “open to everyone” to “commonplace, ordinary,” to “trite, petty.”

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