I was listening to CBC yesterday to their Literary Segment and they were talking about cliches and the word explain. I found it quite interesting as we all talk in cliches without realizing we are using them... "You are driving me nuts/round the bend/crazy" , is a cliche I'm sure we have all said at one time or another.
Then they said that 'explain' means to 'lay something flat"??? Maybe I misunderstood so I decided to look up both words in my dictionaries....None of them mention the definition of explain given by the honorable gentlemen on the CBC program.
To save boring you with meanings - Websters, and Collins backed up Oxford
Cliche - n. Metal casting of stereotype of electrotype; hackneyed phrase or opinion. (Oxford )
Cliche - n. a phrase or idea that has been overused and has become uninteresting or stale. (Oxford Current English) And why writers should avoid them.
Explain - v.t. Make known in detail; make intelligible; etc. (Oxford)
Then at the end of Webster's numerous definitions of explain I found this :-
Explain means "to hammer into one's head."
Sort of cliche, don't you think? No wonder they (CBC) said that to explain means to lay out flat!
Have a great day!
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4 comments:
You laid that out flat (did I spell that right?). Is it layed out flat? Could you explain that spelling to me?? It's driving me nuts that I don't know how to spell it (snicker). Sorry. I WAS paying attention, I'm just always looking to be smart aleck. I love it that you search for the real meanings of words. Did you always do that...or is it just something that came about when you started writing?
I've always loved words, and making up the meanings to words I have absolutely no clue about... my family thinks I'm sick in the head, but they all enjoy the word games so I guess it must be genetic.
Robyn, I was about to pass a Thinking Blogger Award on to you based on this and last Friday's posts, not to mention the countless grammar lessons you posted in the past, but I noticed you already have one!! Dang...
Thanks Wylie
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