Word of the Day

Thursday, September 30, 1999

banal

\BAY-nul; buh-NALL; buh-NAHL (British)\ , adjective;

Commonplace; trivial; hackneyed; trite.

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Quotes:

Perhaps it's just the arrogant, knowing way in which reporters ask the most banal of questions.

-- Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man

How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty?

-- Joyce Carol Oates, "Speaking of Books: The Formidable W.B. Yeats", New York Times, September 7, 1969

All that her late companions can draw from her is the banal declaration, that she "never knew what happiness was before."

-- New Monthly Magazine, LIX. 458, 1840

Origin:

Banal comes from the Old French word ban, an edict, which had the adjective banal, "of or relating to compulsory feudal service," which evolved to signify "merely obligatory," hence "commonplace."