How Cliché: Well Worn Literary Phrases
It is difficult to avoid clichés. I am hyper-sensitive to them, yet I still insert them verbally into my sentences (when writing I tend to be a bit more editorial and catch them before they make it to the final version). Do you catch yourself saying any of these ubiquitous clichés? Which ones are difficult to excise from your stable of sturdy go to phrases?
a surprisingly fun read
Adding insult to injury: this one is covered more thoroughly in a previous post, but how else to best express that feeling of being doubly hurt? Keeper
Albatross Around Your Neck: credit Coleridge and his “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” poem in which a sailor has to wear the albatross he killed. Chicken-killing dogs were made to wear the dead bird around their neck to deter them from killing any further chickens–this must have been the strategy for Coleridge’s poor sailor. Talk about a fowl, unpleasant punishment! Associating dead, rotting birds around my neck with unpleasant tasks makes this a cliché unsavory. Avoid
Forever and a Day: Shakespeare is thought to have penned this phrase from Taming of the Shrew, yet it was found in earlier texts before the 1600s. Taking a long, long time isn’t as poetic as taking an eternity and then some, as in reference to those irritating traffic lights that seem endlessly red. I do use this one when the right occasion pops up. Keeper
Happily Ever After: a standard fairy tale ending that is credited to the fourteenth century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. His stories usually ended with the phrase, “so they lived very lovingly, and happily, ever after.” This became shortened and when used today the speaker and listener is well aware of how cliché the phrase sounds. Avoid, though no harm, no foul
Little Did They Know: a phrase with tracings back into the nineteenth century and made popular by suspense writers in the thirties, forties, and fifties. Again, this one is easily identified as a cliché. No harm no foul
Not to Put Too Fine a Point on It: Charles Dickens is given credit for this one, which is derived from his novel Bleak House. Mr. Snagby liked to utter this phrase as a means of speaking plainly. Frankly I don’t use this one and don’t hear it much either. Moot
Pot Calling the Kettle Black: In Don Quixote there is a line where the frying pan insults the kettle, and since they are both made out of the standard black cast iron it is rather hypocritical for the frying pan to call out the pot being being relatively the same. I admit to using this one; however, do people know what a kettle is these days, let alone the obscure reference to black when there are so many choices in cooking ware available? Avoid, reluctantly (finding it tough to replace this one–calling out someone as a hypocrite is fairly blunt)
Well–how did you rate your own use of these clichés? Find some keepers, despite them being overused and eye roll worthy when mentioned? If they do slip out, no worries (which is becoming a cliché in its own right).
Pam Webb 
I used to do this fun activity with my elementary students where I’d write the beginning of well-known cliches and have the kids finish them.
For example—”You can lead a horse to water, but . . .”
The kids would then write what they thought the end should be.
“But they can’t take you anywhere.”😎
I did a similar activity with my tenth graders except I had them create new ways to say something over-used. Your shows a pragmatic and practical generation coming up the lane.😉
I like your idea better.
Love this, Pam! Isn’t language fascinating? I once had a Professor have us write an entire essay using cliches and “figures of speech”. I do remember using “It takes the cake” in my essay among other things. 😅 How’s your battle with the trefoil? I put up another weed picture recently and thought of you. 😅♥️
Clichés have their place, they are kind of like trefoil—some see them as weeds, and others as decorative plants😆. I am waging a campaign against my infestation by diligently hand pulling as I find it. I think the trefoil quietly snickers at my efforts.
I use them….on occasion.
I do too and I think that is absolutely fine.
So interesting to learn the background of these sayings!
I find words absolutely fascinating!
They are!
I love that you’ve not only identified but rated these, ahem, chestnuts, Pam.
Thanks, Mitch! I would be interested in your chestnut ratings😉
What can I say, Pam, it is what it is. Proof that that’s an overused phrase: As soon as I type “it is,” AI filled in the rest. Overused, yes, but, hey, it is what it is, you know?
LOL AI is already qued for cliches.
Nothing quite as amusing as an old cliche brought back to the fold, I say, and if someone I knew began a statement with, “Not to Put Too Fine a Point on It …” I would smile.
I have visions of a Bic pen ad when I hear that expression.
What immediately came to mind for me were the lyrics to one of my favorite songs from the ’90s, Birdhouse In Your Soul.
“Not to put too fine a point on it,
Say I’m the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul …”
I need “Not to put too fine a point on it.” Otherwise I can’t sing along to They Might be Giants’ “Birdhouse In Your Soul.” Frankly, this is nonnegotiable.
I’ve heard the term “Albatross around your neck” a jillion times but never entirely wrapped my brain around what an albatross was. It’s worth axing this cliché. I propose replacing it with another animal, like a capuchin monkey.
I would monkey around with a capuchin–not to put too fine a point on it.
You must be in the midst of producing yet another fine contribution to kid lit for the quiet lull on your blog…