Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·French ·1890s
Cliché
from cliché — printer's slang for a stereotype plate
- Meaning
- A metal printing block that reproduces a fixed phrase or image.
- Source word
- cliché — printer's slang for a stereotype plate
- Route into English
- Invented in 1800s French print shops; the figurative "overused phrase" sense entered English in the 1890s and displaced the literal one.
- Arrived
- 1890s
From French
Beyond the Norman conquest's Old French foundation, English kept borrowing from French for art, cuisine, fashion, and diplomacy throughout the modern period.
English borrows.
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