A cliché ( UK : / ˈ k l iː ʃ eɪ / or US : / k l iː ˈ ʃ eɪ / ; French: [kliʃe] ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being bland or uninteresting. In phraseology , the term has taken on a more technical meaning, referring to an expression imposed by conventionalized linguistic usage .
30-664: Uncle Dynamite is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse , first published in the United Kingdom on 22 October 1948 by Herbert Jenkins , London and in the United States on 29 November 1948 by Didier & Co., New York. It features the mischievous Uncle Fred , who had previously appeared in Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939). Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, known to all as Uncle Fred,
60-545: A convict's sister marrying a policeman (chapter 3.5). Formal language is frequently juxtaposed with colloquial expressions in Wodehouse's stories. This occurs in chapter 5: "There is an expression in common use which might have been invented to describe the enterprising peer in moments such as this: the expression 'boomps-a-daisy.' You could look askance at his methods, you could shake your head at him in disapproval and click your tongue in reproof, but you could not deny that he
90-554: A culture's folk wisdom and are tempting to say because they sound true or good or like the right thing to say. Some examples are: "Stop thinking so much", "here we go again", and "so what, what effect do my [individual] actions have?" The term was popularized by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton in his 1961 book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China . Lifton wrote, "The language of
120-476: A friend of hers was planning to smuggle through New York Customs. Sally tries to replace the bust with another of Sir Aylmer she sculpted (but had had returned to her, after an unfortunate incident relating to her brother Otis' publication of Sir Aylmer's memoirs), but this comes to naught, and both busts end up in Sir Aylmer's collection room. Uncle Fred is unruffled by this setback and decides to infiltrate
150-456: A proper name, which occurs when Pongo brings the house-maid Elsie Bean out of a cupboard in chapter 9: "His manner as he de-Beaned the cupboard was somewhat distrait." In chapter 8, a character separates "hobnob" into its constituent elements: "It all depended on what you meant by the expression [i.e. hobnob]. To offer a housemaid a cigarrette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing." A non-standard modification to
180-645: A publishing company in the United Kingdom is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Clich%C3%A9 The term, which is typically pejorative, is often used in modern culture for an action or idea that is expected or predictable, based on a prior event. Clichés may or may not be true. Some are stereotypes , but some are simply truisms and facts . Clichés often are employed for comedic effect, typically in fiction. Most phrases now considered clichéd originally were regarded as striking but have lost their force through overuse. The French poet Gérard de Nerval once said, "The first man who compared woman to
210-415: A rose was a poet, the second, an imbecile." A cliché is often a vivid depiction of an abstraction that relies upon analogy or exaggeration for effect, often drawn from everyday experience. Used sparingly, it may succeed, but the use of a cliché in writing, speech, or argument is generally considered a mark of inexperience or a lack of originality. The word cliché is borrowed from French , where it
240-458: A very complicated and well-controlled plot." Uncle Dynamite was adapted for television as a 60-minute episode of the NBC anthology series The Philco Television Playhouse . The episode first aired on 29 January 1950, and starred Arthur Treacher . The story was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in six parts in 1994. The events of " Uncle Fred Flits By " were adapted in the first part as an introduction to
270-408: A whatnot from Sir Aylmer's collection of African curios, and (in the course of demonstrating how Brazilian natives kill birds with rude slings) smashing a coveted bust of his host. Pongo's solution is to replace the busted bust with another one, abstracted from Ickenham Hall. But unknown to him, the replacement bust was fashioned by his former fiancée Sally Painter, and conceals valuable jewellery that
300-402: A word occurs in chapter 13, when the word glimp is used as a back-formation of the word "glimpse" by the policeman Harold Potter: "I just caught sight of her for a minute as she legged it away, like as it might have been a glimp." Ambiguities in language can lead to comedic cross-talk, such as when confusion is caused by two different meanings of the word "by" in chapter 13: "I was assaulted by
330-450: Is a past passive participle of clicher , 'to click', used as a noun; cliché is attested from 1825 and originated in the printing trades. The term cliché was adopted as printers' jargon to refer to a stereotype , electrotype, cast plate or block print that could reproduce type or images repeatedly. It has been suggested that the word originated from the clicking sound in "dabbed" printing (a particular form of stereotyping in which
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#1732798488343360-546: Is neutralized because of his horror of judging the Bonnie Babies competition at the Ashenden Oakshott Fête, an honor for which Uncle Fred, as the ersatz Major, has volunteered. Bill Oakshott finds inspiration in the dominant hero of Ethel M. Dell 's The Way of an Eagle . Wodehouse obtains a humorous effect by using patterns of word formation in varied ways, such as when the prefix "de-" is added to
390-404: Is not the proper wife for him and that Sally is; restore Bill Oakshott to his place as head of his family home and unite him with Hermione, whom he has loved for years; and convince Constable Potter not only to not arrest him, but indeed to quit the force so he and Elsie Bean may live happily ever after. Complications arise, including the arrival of the real Major Brabazon-Plank— but his menace
420-485: Is on the loose once again (Lady Ickenham having decamped for a wedding in Trinidad ), and Reginald ("Pongo") Twistleton, his long-suffering nephew, has every right to be petrified. Uncle Fred has just arrived at Ashenden Manor, Ashenden Oakshott, Hampshire. Ashenden Manor is the home of Sir Aylmer Bostock, Pongo's future father-in-law. Pongo is already in residence and has committed two rank floaters: accidentally smashing
450-531: The Cresset Press , Herbert Jenkins, and Hammond & Hammond. Barrie & Jenkins had a short commercial history and was taken over by Hutchinson , which was itself taken over by Century and then by Random House (now owned by Bertelsmann ). Barrie & Jenkins continues to exist as a specialist imprint mainly for hardback editions within the Random House stable. This article about
480-417: The adjective. Thought-terminating clichés, also known as thought-stoppers, or semantic stopsigns, are words or phrases that discourage critical thought and meaningful discussion about a given topic. They are typically short, generic truisms that offer seemingly simple answers to complex questions or that distract attention away from other lines of thought. They are often sayings that have been embedded in
510-406: The block was impressed into a bath of molten type-metal to form a matrix). Through this onomatopoeia , cliché came to mean a ready-made, oft-repeated phrase. Various dictionaries recognize a derived adjective clichéd , with the same meaning. Cliché is sometimes used as an adjective, although some dictionaries do not recognize it as such, listing the word only as a noun and clichéd as
540-604: The book. A condensed version of the story was published in one issue of Liberty in April 1949, with illustrations by Hal McIntosh. A condensed version was also published in one issue of the Toronto Star Weekly on 30 April 1949. The story was included in the 1983 collection The World of Uncle Fred , published by Hutchinson, London. Wodehouse biographer Richard Usborne calls the book "a brilliantly sustained rattle of word-perfect dialogue and narrative topping
570-419: The crimson petal and the white, and in the silent garden of Ashenden Manor nothing stirred save shy creatures of the night such as owls, mice, rats, gnats, bats and Constable Potter." Vivid imagery involving exaggerated similes and metaphors is frequently used in Wodehouse's stories, for example in chapter 3: "A sticky moisture had begun to bedew his brow, as if he had entered the hot room of some Turkish bath of
600-460: The dog races under the names of Edwin Smith and George Robinson). Potter, intimately tied to the household through his fiancée, the housemaid Elsie Bean, becomes suspicious, and watches the house. Uncle Fred's tasks are: to snatch the bust for Sally Painter; get Sir Aylmer to drop his suit against Otis, so that Sally will not lose the money she invested in his firm; convince Pongo that Hermione Bostock
630-455: The duck pond." "By the duck pond?" Sir Aylmer asked, his eyes widening. "Yes, sir." "How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?" Constable Potter saw where the misunderstanding had arisen. The English language is full of these pitfalls. "When I say 'by the duck pond,' I didn't mean 'by the duck pond,' I meant 'by the duck pond.' That is to say," proceeded Constable Potter, speaking just in time, "'near' or 'adjacent to', in fact 'on
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#1732798488343660-493: The edge of'." Incongruity between descriptions of a particular situation is used for comedic effect, as in chapter 1: "From the penny-in-the-slot machine at the far end to the shed where the porter kept his brooms and buckets the platform was dark with what practically amounted to a sea of humanity. At least forty persons must have been present." Foreign loan words are fairly frequent in Wodehouse's stories, sometimes in incongruous contexts, such as "mésalliance" being used to describe
690-467: The furnace. Of Sir Aylmer it would be more correct to say that he had passed through the frigidaire." Variations on Shakespearean quotations often appear in Wodehouse's stories, as in chapter 6 when Lord Ickenham greets Bill Oakshott with "Well met by moonlight, proud Oakshott." The first UK edition dust jacket was illustrated by Frank Ford. The first US edition dust jacket was illustrated by Hal McIntosh, and illustrations by McIntosh were included throughout
720-478: The house as an impostor. Having met Bill Oakshott (an unassuming young man who is the actual owner of Ashenden Manor, but who shrinks from confronting and displacing his bombastic, overbearing uncle Sir Aylmer) on the train, Uncle Fred contrives to get invited to the house—under the name of Major Brabazon-Plank. Unfortunately, the local Constable, Harold Potter, happens to have grown up with Major Plank (and also happens to remember arresting Uncle Fred and Pongo at
750-472: The novel. The cast included Richard Briers as Uncle Fred, Hugh Grant as Pongo, Paul Eddington as the narrator, Simon Treves as Bill Oakshott, Charles Gray as Sir Aylmer Bostock, Josephine Tewson as Lady Bostock, Chris Emmett as Harold Potter, Teresa Gallagher as Elsie Bean, Susie Brann as Sally, Mary Chater as Hermione Bostock, Toby Longworth as Otis, and Donald Hewlett as Major Brabazon-Plank. Herbert Jenkins Ltd Barrie & Jenkins
780-589: The playwright J. M. Barrie , and of the Rockliff Publishing Corporation, which was "known for its theatre list". One of the most notable authors of Barrie & Jenkins was P. G. Wodehouse , whose titles came from the Herbert Jenkins portfolio of writers which in the 1920s included authors such as Mrs Hungerford , Edna Lyall , W. Riley and Winifred Boggs . The Barrie Group eventually comprised Barrie & Rockliff,
810-399: The soul." In chapter 2, an exaggerated synonym is used for comic effect when Lord Ickenham asks "What have you been doing, Bill Oakshott, to merit this reception—nay, this durbar?" Wodehouse uses clichés out of place or in unusual ways for humorous effect. An example occurs in chapter 6: "Sometimes in our wanderings about the world we meet men of whom it is said that they have passed through
840-402: The totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis". Sometimes they are used in a deliberate attempt to shut down debate, manipulate others to think
870-472: Was a small British publishing house that was formed in 1964 from the merger of the companies Herbert Jenkins (founded by English writer Herbert George Jenkins ) and Barrie & Rockliff (whose managing director was Leopold Ullstein and whose editorial staff included John Bunting and John Pattison). Barrie & Rockcliff was itself the result of the merger in the 1950s of James Barrie Books, founded in 1947 by James Barrie whose great-uncle and godfather had been
900-419: Was boomps-a-daisy." Some of Wodehouse's older, more dignified male characters have humorously inappropriate, discourteous nicknames from their years at school, such as Sir Aylmer "Mugsy" Bostock, Major "Bimbo" Brabazon-Plank, and Frederick Altamont Cornwallis "Barmy" Twistleton, Lord Ickenham. The stylistic device of the "enumeration" is used with a carefully planned anticlimax at the end in chapter 6: "Now slept
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