Dictionary

platitudinize en · VERB

Etymology

From platitude + -ize on analogy of other adjectives ending in -tudinize, from Latin -tūdin- + -ize, the oblique stem of -tūdō. Compare platitudinous.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To utter one or more platitudes; to make obvious, trivial, or clichéd remarks concerning a topic.
   • He does not attempt lofty flights of eloquence or try to disguise thought under ponderous platitudinising sentences. 1894 July 24, “An Undenominational Mission: Outspokenness in the Pulpit”, in The Age, Australia, retrieved 07 Oct 2011, page 5:
   • 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. 2008 February 20, Maxie Zeus, “Glass Fleet”, in www.tunezone.net, retrieved 07 Oct 2011:
   • 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. 1928, R. Austin Freeman, As a Thief in the Night, House of Stratus, published 2001, →ISBN, page 139:
2. (transitive) To express as or reduce to one or more clichés or truisms.
   • “It's better to have to struggle when you're young, I think, than when you're older,” she platitudinized. 1962, Philip Roth, Letting Go, Random House, published 1997, →ISBN:
   • 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. 2008 April 25, Simon Jenkins, “The White House race is a catalogue of misspeaking”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 07 Oct 2011:
   • Mendelssohn had misunderstood, platitudinized, and misinterpreted the holy concept of revelation. 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:

Forms

Deriveds

platitudinizer · platitudinization

Synonyms

trivialize