platitudinize

English

Alternative forms

• platitudise

Etymology

From platitude +‎ -in- +‎ -ize.

Verb

platitudinize (third-person singular simple present platitudinizes, present participle platitudinizing, simple past and past participle platitudinized)

1. (intransitive) To utter one or more platitudes; to make obvious, trivial, or clichéd remarks concerning a topic.
   • 1894 July 24, “An Undenominational Mission: Outspokenness in the Pulpit”, in The Age, Australia, retrieved 7 October 2011, page 5:

     He does not attempt lofty flights of eloquence or try to disguise thought under ponderous platitudinising sentences.

   • 1928, R. Austin Freeman, As a Thief in the Night‎^[1], House of Stratus, published 2001, →ISBN, page 139:

     If we keep our knowledge strictly to ourselves we know exactly how we stand, and that if there has been any leakage, it had been from some other source. But I need not platitudinize to an experienced and learned counsel.

   • 2008 February 20, Maxie Zeus, “Glass Fleet”, in www.tunezone.net, retrieved 7 October 2011:

     The people in this show don't talk like normal people—they lecture, they argue, they negotiate, they strategize, they philosophize, they platitudinize, they deliver speeches about destiny, liberty, and bravery.

2. (transitive) To express as or reduce to one or more clichés or truisms.
   • 1842, Solomon Ludwig Steinheim, “On the Perennial and the Ephemeral in Judaism”, in Daniel H. Frank et al., editors, The Jewish Philosophy Reader, published 2000, →ISBN, page 402:

     Mendelssohn had misunderstood, platitudinized, and misinterpreted the holy concept of revelation.

   • 1962, Philip Roth, Letting Go‎^[2], Random House, published 1997, →ISBN:

     “It's better to have to struggle when you're young, I think, than when you're older,” she platitudinized.

   • 2008 April 25, Simon Jenkins, “The White House race is a catalogue of misspeaking”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 7 October 2011:

     A modern campaign, not just in America, is so fine-tuned, so honed and platitudinised, that mistakes are the only way of bringing it into focus.

Synonyms

• (transitive: express as a cliché): trivialize

Derived terms

• platitudinization
• platitudinizer

References

• “platitudinize”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.