The Curiosity of Cliche's - What is Your Cliche Today?

We hear them every day. We use them everydai In our own speech and hear them in others. But how many of us really know what the definition of a cliché' is? According to wikipedia a cliché is " a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty, especially when at some time it was considered distinctively forceful or novel. The term is generally used in a negative context".

Here are a few examples of cliche's: "You can lead a horse to water...but you can't make it drink." or how about this one? "Will wonders never cease?". Have you ever wondered what some of these even mean? Some of them are obvious, but others seem to be opposite. The English language is full of fascination and wonder at where things come from. How they arrived in the English language is a fascinating study in and of itself. Often our ancestors brought these over from England, France and Germany or other places of their origin. As they learned the English language parts of the cliche's were dropped or mispronounced and evolved into today's cliche'. Thus creating a lot of confusion for newcomers to the English language.

For some of us cliche's are used daily in our speech. For others cliche's come along a little less often. Have you ever stopped and wondered why your mother said "your room looks like a pig stye?" (even if it did where did she come up with that phrase?) Another cliche'! Where did it first come from? Her mother perhaps?

How often do you use cliche's in your speech? How often do your friends use a cliche'? I bet now that you have read up on this a bit you will find yourself, and your friends using cliche's a lot more often than you thought, and why not? Isn't that how you've always done it? How many cliche's can you come up with right now without googling or asking someone? Where did you first hear it? Chances are, you've heard it for so long that you don't even remember. Perhaps your mother or father said it. Why did they say it? Because their mother or father said it and so on down the line.