Clichés are overused and boring language, but not all reused language is a cliché. Language used in ceremonies and rituals is not considered cliché. Some clichés were once fresh and inventive, such as similes and proverbs. Using clichés can lose your audience’s attention, but using them with irony can bring them to life.
A cliché is language that has lost its freshness and registers with a listener or reader as overused and boring. While the term cliché is often used to refer to language that has been abused over a long period of time, it is not necessarily true of older utterances and, by definition, may be true of new language that has been repeated. too often.
Reuse in and of itself does not create clichés. For example, language used over many years, sometimes hundreds, in ceremonies, rituals, courts and government is considered appropriate and suitable for its use and seems to stand outside of time. Language as
• “I approve the motion”
• “I now pronounce you husband and wife”
• “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and that, to the best of my ability, I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
• “Happy birthday!”
they are part of the form and content of certain occasions and live with them. These phrases are not considered clichés.
Often the language that is considered cliché today is a language that was once new and fresh, such as figures of speech. Today, “red as a rose” is fairly universally recognized as a cliché, but it must have been a fresh and inventive figurative language at some point. Indeed, there is a small set of clichés that are similes containing words of color:
• pitch black/coal/soot/a crow
• green like grass
• white as a sheet/ghost/snow/milk
Another set of clichéd similes are built around animals
• busy as a bee
• drunk as a skunk
• free as a bird
• happy as a lark
• poor as church mice
• silent as a mouse
• sick as a dog
• slippery like an eel
• cunning as a fox
• blind as a bat
• strong as an ox
And there are many with different reference points, each of which is considered a cliché:
• blue in the face
• fresh as a cucumber
• cute as a button
• stupid as a post
• easy as pie
• healthy as a fish
• flat as a board/pancake
• as good as gold
• tough as nails
• high as a kite
• light as a feather
• mad as a hatter
• nutty as a fruitcake
• as old as the hills
• happy as punch
• as beautiful as a photo
• pure as beaten snow
• just like the rain
• sharp as a tack
• thick like pea soup
• tickled pink
• ugly as sin
In addition to comparisons, proverbs, sayings, adages, and the like are also likely to become clichés after repeated use. Examples of this type of cliché include:
• You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
• What goes around comes around.
Because using a cliché can lose your audience’s attention, whether you’re writing or speaking, you might want to keep that in mind when reviewing your work. Sure, there’s one way you can still use corny, hackneyed language without it being clichéd: use it with irony and it’ll suddenly spring to life.
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