A Dictionary of Cont..

commentator 104
commentator. It was probably inevitable that the
people who make critical or explanatory remarks
about news events over the radio should
have chosen to be called commentntors rather
than comm~nters. It is more grandi!oquent. A
conzmenter (no such word exists in standard
usage) would have been one who made comments.
A commentator is one who makes commentaries
and a commentary is an expository
treatise consisting of a systematic series of
comments. It’s a pity the news commentators
burdened themselves with such delusions of
grandeur, especially since ninety percent of
them only read the news anyway. You can hear
them stumbling over the hard words.
commit may be followed by an infinitive, as in
I have committed myself to go, or by the -ing
form of a verb introduced by the preposition to,
as in I have committed myself to going. Some
grammarians object to the use of an infinitive
here and claim that only the -ing form is acceptable.
But both constructions are standard in the
United States.
common. See average; frequent; mutual.
common; ordinary; vulgar. Common means possessed
or shared by all alike (Venus, says Robert
Burton, was as common as a barber’s chair).
When applied to persons it usually has a derogatory
connotation of cheapness or inferiority.
Vulgar means belonging to the people and the
meaning attached to it depends on how you view
belonging to the common people. The common
people themselves (though they probably do
not view themselves as such) obviously don’t
think much of it, since to them vulgar means
coarse, indecent (His talk was just vulgar. I was
ashamed to be with him). To a few uncommon
intellectuals (who are, no doubt, tired of intellectuals)
vulgar often means strong in a coarse
way (He had a vulgar virility that offset his
coarse greed). Ordinary means what is to be expected
in the usual order of things. It is slightly
derogatory, but not much; just a tired admission
from the sad wisdom of experience that the
usual order of things, so far as human beings go,
isn’t much.
common noun. Any noun that is not a proper
noun (that is, any noun that is not the name of
a particular person or thing) is a common noun.
common or garden variety. Whoever first took
this phrase from a seed catalog (it happened
about 1895) and applied it figuratively deserved,
and it is to be hoped obtained, applause for a
sprightly wit. But it is now a common, or garden,
variety of clich6, the bloom withered, the root
broken and the stem pawed to a limp shred.
commonplace; banal; hackneyed; stereotyped; trite.
Commonplace means ordinary and, hence, dull
and uninteresting. Before the romantic admiration
of the unordinary, commonplace was often
used to signify something that was particularly
interesting because it had a general or common
application. Thus gentlemen of leisure kept
Commonplace Books in which they copied
passages of unusual interest and philosophic
breadth that they came across in their reading.
Banal was a French word meaning common-
place. It had originally been a feudal term meaning
communal. It was borrowed in the nineteenth
century by English literary critics (who,
as Fowler growls, had a dozen good words at
home to choose from) and carries not only the
meaning of commonplace but also the contempt
for the commonplace felt by such superior people
as those who borrowed it. It means inane,
insipid, and hollowly pretentious.
A hackney was originally “an ambling horse,
for ladies to ride on,” then a horse for hire, then
a horse used in coaches that were for hire
(whence our hack). These horses were worn out
and jaded and by a natural figurative extension
the word was used to describe phrases that were
worn out and jaded by overuse.
Stereotyped emphasizes the fact that that
phrase or idea is the exact response that a certain
situation evokes. It is an automatic response,
totally devoid of any originality.
Trite derives from a Latin word meaning to
rub. But in its current use it is not only something
that has been rubbed smooth by use but
something which, though originally profound
or apt, has lost all freshness through repetition
(He was full of trite sayings).
commonplace; platitude; triviality; truism; axiom.
A commonplace is something regularly said on
certain occasions (All men must die). It may
be true or it may be false. It may be useful and
sensible. The utterer of a commonplace does not
seek the applause that is given to originality but
the warmth that comes from the recognition of
a common humanity and common experience.
A platitude is a dull, trite remark uttered as
if it were original and important. The utterer of
platitudes expects the admiration accorded to
wisdom and gets the contempt reserved for pompous
folly.
A trivialify is some trifling or insignificant
remark uttered as if it were just suited to the
occasion. It gains the utterer the reputation of
being silly.
A truism is a self-evident or obvious truth,
something which is incontrovertible in itself
(Thus We all ought to do our duty is a truism
because our duty is that which we ought to do).
It is something which is indisputably true, needs
no proof, and can’t be contradicted, yet which
is often uttered in a positive, almost aggressive
manner, as if the speaker regarded it as a daring
proposition and was prepared to defend it
against all attack. Such a statement is often
followed by a brief silence, not, as the speaker
seems to think, of awe at its profundity, but of
bewilderment at its being spoken at all.
An axiom is an established and universally
accepted rule or principle. It is stated, with the
full understanding that everyone assents to it,
as the beginning of a chain of reasoning.
compact (agreement). See pact.
companionable; companionate. Companionable
means sociable, fitted to be a companion (He
was a companionable fellow, ideal to have along
on a camping trip). Companionate, recognized
in British dictionaries only as an obsolete word
meaning companioned or accompanied, is used