hackneyed

English

Alternative forms

• hacknied (obsolete)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Middle English hakeney

English hackney

English -ed

English hackneyed

From hackney + -ed. Most likely from the fact that hackney carriages have been used so much, that they were once extremely commonplace.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæk.nid/, [ˈhæknɪi̯d]
• (US) enPR: hăkʹnēd

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ækniːd
• Hyphenation: hack‧neyed

Adjective

hackneyed (comparative more hackneyed, superlative most hackneyed)

1. Of speech or writing, a phrase, etc.: uninteresting and unoriginal from being repeated too often.

   Synonyms: banal, commonplace, clichéd, (archaic) hackney, shopworn, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn; see also Thesaurus:hackneyed

   Antonyms: fresh, original, unhackneyed

   The sermon was full of hackneyed phrases and platitudes.

   • 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat […] ‎^[1]:

     It was a great success, that Irish stew. I don’t think I ever enjoyed a meal more. There was something so fresh and piquant about it. One's palate gets so tired of the old hackneyed things: here was a dish with a new flavour, with a taste like nothing else on earth.

   • 1999 November 2, Michiko Kakutani, “Books of The Times: A Single Girl Takes On the California Frontier”, in The New York Times (E section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7:

     Throughout the novel Ms. Allende uses Eliza and Tao's adventures as an excuse for hackneyed historical observations about the gold rush madness of the 1850's -- much the way she used her hero's peregrinations in "The Infinite Plan" (1993) as an excuse for cliched remarks on the 1960's.

2. (dated) Let out for hire.

Derived terms

• hackneyedness
• unhackneyed

Translations

of speech or writing, a phrase, etc.: uninteresting and unoriginal from being repeated too often

• Bulgarian: изтъркан (bg) (iztărkan), банален (bg) (banalen), шаблонен (bg) (šablonen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陳腐的 / 陈腐的 (chénfǔ de), 老生常談的 / 老生常谈的 (lǎoshēngchángtán de)

• Czech: otřepaný, ohraný, otřelý
• Danish: fortærsket, klichéagtig, forslidt
• Dutch: afgezaagd (nl), banaal (nl)
• Finnish: kulunut (fi), kliseinen (fi)
• French: rebattu (fr), éculé (fr)
• Galician: gastado, desgastado, luído
• German: abgedroschen (de), abgenutzt (de), banal (de), ausgelutscht (de), abgegriffen (de)
• Greek: τετριμμένος (el) m (tetrimménos), κοινότοπος (el) m (koinótopos)
• Hebrew: נדוש (he) (nadósh), חבוט (khavút)
• Hungarian: elcsépelt (hu)
• Interlingua: banal, trivial
• Japanese: 陳腐な (ja) (chimpu na), 常套の (ja) (jōtō)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: banalny (pl), oklepany (pl), pospolity (pl)
• Portuguese: banal (pt), batido (pt), corriqueiro (pt), trivial (pt)
• Russian: изби́тый (ru) (izbítyj), зата́сканный (ru) (zatáskannyj), бана́льный (ru) (banálʹnyj), шабло́нный (ru) (šablónnyj), зае́зженный (ru) (zajézžennyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: izlizan (sh), banalan (sh)
• Spanish: gastado (es), trillado (es), manido (es), manoseado (es), sobado (es), traído y llevado, tópico (es)
• Swedish: sliten (sv), banal (sv), utnött (sv)

Verb

hackneyed

1. simple past and past participle of hackney