The 'Cliche' by Sophie Austen

The ‘cliché’ Definition Today, the term cliche or cliché

(UK /ˈkliːʃeɪ or US /klɪˈʃeɪ/) n. is a word, expression, idea or action which has lost its original meaning or effect through overuse.

‘THE CLICHE’ | The definition, use, origins & process of making a ‘cliché’

The use of the term ‘cliché’ In the past, clichés were considered as striking, meaningful or novel. The term is now frequently used to express something which is trite or predictable, based on a prior event. Yet a cliché may or may not be true, some are based on stereotypes and some truisms or facts. In writing or speech, clichés are generally considered a mark of inexperience or unoriginality, but sometimes they are purposefully used for comic effect. Many clichéd phrases are still used to this very day. This newspaper focuses upon some more traditional and familiar examples of clichés with rich histories and numerous interesting yet indefinite theories and etymologies behind them.

The printing origins of the ‘cliché’ The word cliché originates from the French language. A cliché is a printing plate cast from movable metal type, also called a stereotype. Where letters had to be set one at a time to print words, it made sense to cast phrases which were going to be used repeatedly as a single slug of metal. Therefore, ‘cliché’ came to mean such a ready-made phrase. It is also said that the French word ‘cliché’ is derived from the sound made when the molten stereotyping metal was poured onto a matrix to make a printing plate, sourced from ‘cliquer’ meaning ‘to click’. Clichés were used to print duplicates of printed material such as page layouts for books, adverts and newspapers.

The process of making a ‘cliché’ Metal type is set into a layout, locked securely into a metal forme and then levelled out using a hammer-like tool. A thick damp sheet of soft paper is placed ontop of the type, with a protective covering placed ontop of that. This is then compressed with a heavy roller onto the surface of the metal type to create deep impressions into the paper, which is then peeled away creating what is called a paper matrice or matrix. It is strengthened on the back with strips of paper and baked for a while to harden and set. From this, hot molten metal is poured into a moulding box with the matrix inside within a casting machine. The hot molten metal fills into the impresessions in the surface of the matrix, and is left to cool and solidify. Once the metal plate has solidified, it is separated from the matrix, trimmed to the correct width and the edges are shaved to smooth them out. It is then ready to be printed from.

‘Piece of cake’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

1. Definition A straightforward task that can be accomplished with enjoyment and/ or ease.

Example of use today Question: “Do you expect to win your tennis match today?” Reply: “It will be a piece of cake.”

“Her picture’s in the papers now, And life’s a piece of cake.”

‘Piece of cake’ 1.1 Originating From the mid 19th century, this first cliché seems to have a fairly definite origin, from America. The earliest known citation of the phrase is from the American poet and humorist Ogden Nash’s Primrose Path, 1936: “Her picture’s in the papers now, And life’s a piece of cake.” The idea of cake being “easy” originated in the 1870s when cakes were given out as prizes for winning competitions. In particular, there was a tradition in the US slavery states where slaves would circle in an entertaining maanner around a cake at a gathering, called the ‘cake walk’. The most ‘graceful’ pair would win the cake in the middle. From this, the terms ‘cake walk’ and ‘piece of cake’ came into being, both meaning that something was easy to accomplish. Other phrases along the same lines include ‘as easy as pie’, ‘a cake-walk’ and ‘that takes the cake/ biscuit’. The choice of cake or pie as a symbol of ease and pleasantry is well represented in the language. ‘As easy as pie’ has earlier known origins than ‘piece of cake’, where “like eating pie” was used as a phrase in Sporting Life from 1886.

1.2 The alternative theory goes that this expression originated in the Royal Air Force in the late 1930s for an easy mission. The precise reference is as mysterious as that of the simile ‘easy as pie’. Possibly it evokes the easy accomplishment of swallowing a slice of sweet dessert. However it seems that the first theory is the most reliable and solid source.

‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Piece of cake’

‘Spill the beans’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

2. Definition To divulge a secret, especially to do so inadvertently or maliciously.

Example of use today Josh spilled the beans; he told Jake about the surprise birthday party!

“Although it be a shame to spill it, I will not leaue to say that which... his friends haue said vnto me.”

‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Spill the beans’

‘Spill the beans’ 2.1 The derivation of this expression has been said to come from the voting system once used in ancient Greece. White beans were used to indicate positive votes and black beans negative. Votes had to be unanimous, and so if the collector ‘spilled the beans’ before the vote was complete and a black bean was seen, the vote was halted. This is a plausible theory, however it doesn’t account for the fact that the phrase is first found in the early 20th century.

2.2 ‘Spill’ has been used as a verb with the meaning of ‘divulge’ or ‘let out’ since at least the 16th century. Edward Hellowes’ text of ‘Guevara’s Familiar Epistles’, 1584, contains an example of that usage: “Although it be a shame to spill it, I will not leaue to say that which... his friends haue said vnto me.” The use of ‘let out’ was likely influenced by an earlier meaning of ‘spill’, i.e. ‘kill’ and the subsequent usage ‘spill blood’, which was in common use by the 14th century.

2.3 The earliest uses of the full phrase ‘spill the beans’ come from the USA. The meaning of the phrase was then said as ‘spoil the beans’ or ‘upset the applecart’, which harks back to the supposed Greek knocking over of a bean container. The first found record of this is from The Stevens Point Journal, June 1908: “Tawney, when he came to congress, wasn’t welcomed within the big tent. He had to wait around on the outside. Then the blacksmith [Jim Tawney] got busy. He just walked off the reservation, taking enough insurgent Republicans with him to spill the beans for the big five.” Soon after, the phrase was used with the meaning of ‘upset a previously stable situation by talking out of turn’, which is close to how we use it today. That is cited in The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, October 1911: “Finally Secretary Fisher, of the President’s cabinet, who had just returned from a trip to Alaska, was called by Governor Stubbs to the front, and proceeded, as one writer says, to ‘spill the beans’.”

So, we have ‘spill’ meaning ‘divulge’, but why beans? Well, it could have been almost anything. In fact, there are several ‘spill the’ variants - ‘spill the soup’, ‘spill your guts’, or simply, just ‘spill’.

‘Mind your Ps & Qs’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

3. Definition To be on your best behaviour; to be well mannered; to not swear.

However, this created the opportunity for the pub keeper to charge for a few extra pints and quarts. And in some cases the captain was in on this little deception, and shared in the extra payment.

Example Since his recent drunk driving arrest, he has certainly been minding his Ps and Qs.

‘Mind your Ps & Qs’ 3.1 There are various theories for the origins behind this expression. The first is from the early pub days when beer and ale were served in pint and quart containers, and a tally on a chalkboard was used to keep track of the pints and quarts being consumed. To watch your Ps and Qs in this case meant to control your alcoholic intake and behavior. Not only did pub keepers maintain the count of pints and quarts consumed, they often maintained a tab for regular customers, especially sailors. The sailors’ tab was sometimes paid directly out of the sailors pay by the ship’s captain. This was to assure the pub keeper of payment. However, this created the opportunity for the pub keeper to charge for a few extra pints and quarts. And in some cases the captain was in on this little deception, taking a share in the extra payment. Hence it was to the sailors best interest to keep count of the pints and quarts - to ‘mind his Ps and Qs’.

3.2 An alternative theory originates from a printing background. Movable metal type used for printing presses is set reversed; and the reversed lower case ‘p’ looks like a ‘q’ and vice-versa. With so many individual letters required for even a singlepage publication, a printer’s devil, an apprentice who assembles the plates, has to be mindful not to confuse them.

3.5 Alternativeley, mind your pieds (feet) and queues (wigs) is suggested to have been an instruction given by French dancing masters to their charges. This has the benefit of placing the perruque in the right context as long as the phrase is accepted as being originally French. However it seems there is no reason to suppose it is from France and no version of the phrase exists in French.

3.3 Similarly, a child or person just learning how to write could easily confuse lower case ‘p’s and ‘q’s. Hence a need to be careful not to confuse the two.

3.6 Moreover, ‘peas’ were know traditionally as jackets or coats and ‘queues’ or cues were wigs or pony tails. Pea jackets were short rough woollen overcoats made from ‘p’ cloth, commonly worn by sailors in the 18th century. Perruques were full wigs worn by fashionable gentlemen and queues were long ponytails or plaits that was traditionally a popular hairstyle amongst Native Americans and later in Europe and North America. British soldiers and sailors in the 18th century wore their hair long and pulled back tightly, and was powdered or greased like powdered wigs, or even tarred in the case of sailors. Yet it is difficult to imagine the need for an expression to warn people to avoid confusing them both, except in the meaning of being careful to remain presentable.

3.4 Another version of the advice to children origin suggests that the letters ‘P’ and ‘Q’ derive from “mind your pleases and thank-yous’’. That was widely touted as an origin but seems to be a back-formation, i.e. an explanation fitted to explain the phrase after it was coined in some other context, as ‘pleases and thank-yous’ doesn’t appear to lead to ‘P’s and ‘Q’s.

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‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Mind your Ps & Qs’

‘THE CLICHE’ | Movable metal type

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The ‘cliché’

The ‘cliche’ is also the term given for a printing plate cast from movable metal type.

‘Pass with flying colours’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

4. Definition To achieve something with relative ease; To show triumph and success.

Example of use today She took her driving test today and passed with flying colours.

‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Pass with flying colours’

On a ships return to the port from an attempt to resolve an issue, the appearance or lack of a flying flag communicated how the crew fared at sea.

‘Pass with flying colours’ 4.1 Colours has numerous meanings. An early use of the word was an unfurled flag, pennant, or badge. Pass in nautical terms, relates to the return from the sea and to pass back into the harbour. Ships have served many uses over time, such as being one of the original ways to resolve political and national conflict, where modern forms of communication weren’t yet available. On a ships return to the port from an attempt to resolve an issue, the appearance or lack of a flying flag communicated how the crew fared at sea. A victory would be demonstrated with flags flying from the mastheads, however if they were defeated, they would ‘strike their colours’ as in take their flags down. Moreover, when sailing ships passed each other at sea they would fly their colours, or flags, if they wanted to be identified. Hence, both leading to the phrase, “pass(ed) with flying colours”.

Similarly, the phrase ‘sailing under false colours’ was a reference to a deceptive tactic used by pirates or maritime robbers roaming the seas to attack vessels with desired booty. By hoisting a friendly flag, the unsuspecting ship would allow the pirates’ ship to approach without resistance, giving the pirates access to board their vessel. Blackbeard famously repeated this process for two years, and sometimes upon sight of their ship, with a pirate flag replacing the deceptive friendly one, the ship would immediately surrender. However, this was not limited historically to pirates, as the British navy had used this tactic when chasing Black Bart Roberts.

4.2 An alternative theory suggests that it was a metaphor drawn from parades which do not merely pass, but do so with flags raised - ‘with flying colours’. ‘Go down with colours flying’ and ‘nail your colours to the mast’ are used similarly to the nautical allusion, and are phrases to express persistence or stubbornness. Both of these theories are equally realistic and both could be valid, however the relevance to ships predates that of parades and so is the most likely origin.

‘Mad as a hatter’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

5. Definition To be completely mad, crazy, annoyed or angry. Related phrase: ‘crazy as a March hare’.

Example Everybody in my family knew that our uncle has always been as mad as a hatter. “In that direction,” the cat said, “lives a hatter: and in that direction, lives a march hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”

‘Mad as a hatter’ The earliest known printed citation of this phrase is from Blackwood’s Edinburgh magazine, in JanuaryJune, 1829. It appears in a section of the magazine headed noctes ambrocianæ. No. Xl1v, in a fictional conversation between a group of characters that would not have been out of place in Wonderland: “North: many years - I was sultan of bello for a long period, until dethroned by an act of the grossest injustice; but I intend to expose the traitorous conspirators to the indignation of an outraged world. Tickler (aside to shepherd.): He’s raving. Shepherd (to tickler.): Dementit. Odoherty (to both.): Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar.”

5.1 The first and most convincing theory proposes that Mercury, which we now know to be highly toxic, was used in the manufacture of hats. Hatters commonly suffered from ‘hatter’s shakes’, a form of nerve damage which gave symptoms similar to Parkinson’s Disease as well as mood swings, which is still known today as ‘Mad Hatter’s Syndrome’. It is therefore likely that the mercury in hat making did lead to ‘mad’ hatters both in terms of rationality and plain old grumpiness. Whilst not being the source of the phrase, Lewis Carroll’s ‘hatter’ character from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865, is of course the best-known mad hatter of them all. The hatter is not actually described as mad in the story, merely a participant at ‘a mad tea-party’, although he can hardly be called sane, and he is portrayed as mad (along with all the other characters) by the Cheshire Cat: “In that direction,” the cat said, “lives a hatter: and in that direction, lives a march hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.” Carroll may have taken his inspiration for the mad hatter from the known unusual behaviour of hatters, as well as from Theophilus Carter, an Oxford cabinet maker and furniture dealer with a reputation for eccentric behaviour of whom Carroll would’ve been familiar with. From this, it is safe to say that the cap, or in this case, the top hat, certainly fits.

5.2 There is a completely different theory that comes from Australia, where the phrase was originally recited ‘as mad as an adder’, i.e. a viper, which also corresponds with the American expression, ‘as mad as a cut snake’. However this may have been mistaken for ‘mad as a hatter’ over time.

5.3 Another possible explanation is from New Zealand, in that the name hatter was given to miners who worked alone. Writing in 1889, E. Wakefield, in New Zealand: “Miners who work alone are called ‘hatters’, one explanation of the term being that they frequently go mad from the solitude of their claim away in the bush, exemplifying the proverb ‘as mad as a hatter’.” The expression appears again twice soon afterwards. In a book by the Canadian author Thomas Chandler Haliburton’s The Clockmaker, and also in The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville, 1835: “And with that he turned right round, and sat down to his map and never said another word, lookin’ as mad as a hatter...” and “Father he larfed out like any thing; I thought he would never stop - and sister sall got right up and walked out of the room, as mad as a hatter.” All of these theories are equally believable and may have all been used in their own way, however it is not clear which was the first used.

‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Mad as a hatter’

Origins 5.1 The earliest known printed citation of the phrase is from Blackwood’s Edinburgh magazine, in

January-June, 1829. It appears in a section of the magazine headed noctes ambrocianæ. No. Xl1v, in a fictional conversation between a group of characters that would not have been out of place in Wonderland:

“North: many years - I was sultan of bello for a long period, until dethroned by an act of the grossest injustice ; but I intend to expose the traitorous conspirators to the indignation of an outraged world. Tickler (aside to shepherd.): He’s raving. Shepherd (to tickler.): Dementit. Odoherty (to both.): Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar.”

Definition To do everything in your ability to ensure something is successful.

‘Pull out all the stops’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

Example of use today Great Britain pulled out all the stops in their efforts to make the London Olympics the best ever.

‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Pull out all the stops’

‘Pull out all the stops’ 4.1 This metaphorical expression has a fairly definite origin, relating to the fact that the volume and timbre of a traditional pipe organ can be controlled in part by pulling out or removing, or by pushing in or adding, small valves called ‘stops’. If an organist ‘pulled out all the stops’ on the organ, it would increase the musical volume largely and would create a very big sound when played. Whereas if all of the valves or stops were to be pushed in, the sound would be mainly baffled by restraining the air flow through the bellows, and therefore would create very little sound. Prior to the introduction of pipe organs the word 'stop' had in a musical context been used to mean 'note' or 'key'. That usage is recorded as early as the late 16th century, as in this example from George Gascoigne's satire, The Steele Glas, from 1576: “But sweeter soundes, of concorde, peace, and loue, Are out of tune, and iarre in euery stoppe.” Of course, ‘notes’ and ‘keys’ can’t be pulled out. The word ‘stop’ later came to be used for the valves that control the air flow within pipe organs, by pushing them in or, more to the point here, pulling them out. The first person to have used the phrase in a figurative, i.e. nonorgan related sense appears to have been Matthew Arnold, in Essays in Criticism, 1865: “Knowing how unpopular a task one is undertaking when one tries to pull out a few more stops in that... somewhat narrow-toned organ, the modern Englishman.” Despite there being no alternative theory to this, how this phrase came to be used in its modern sense today is still not clear.

‘Long live the cliche’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

‘THE CLICHE’ | ‘Long live the cliche’

The use of metal type is diminishing, yet the use of the cliche continues to flourish. But their origins will eventually be forgotten: Keep their histories alive. Love live metal type. Long live the cliche.

Design & photography by Sophie Austen www.sophieausten.com sophie_austen@hotmail.com 07815652572

‘PIECE OF CAKE’ | ‘THE CLICHE’

Information courtesy of: The New Collins Concise English Dictionary, Wikipedia, www.joe-ks.com & www.phrases.org.uk