common-place

See also: common place and commonplace

English

Adjective

common-place (comparative more common-place, superlative most common-place)

1. Archaic form of commonplace.
   • 1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 69–70:

     But they would have been improved by some share of his frankness and warmth; and her visit was long enough to detract something from their first admiration, by shewing that though perfectly well bred, she was reserved, cold, and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most common-place inquiry or remark.

   • [1844], “Importance of the Subject”, in The Rationale of Revealed Religion, London: James Nisbett, […]; and Thomas Ward, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 5:

     The points I am about to treat are common-place; and why are they common-place? Simply because they are at once so obvious, and so important, that he who thinks at all, must think of them.

   • 1855, B[enjamin] H[umphrey] Smart, “The Way in which Language is the Exponent of Thought—Conclusion”, in Thought and Language: An Essay Having in View the Revival, Correction, and Exclusive Establishment of Locke’s Philosophy, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 165:

     Who does not understand, as single parts of speech, all the common combinations which serve to connect and carry on construction, such as in-consequence-of, on-this-account, under-these-circumstances, at-all-events, admitting-the-fact, and the like? Indeed, we are entitled to say of ordinary common-place speakers, that as they scarcely use constructed language except in forms already existing, so, with them, each thought finds an immediate sign in some familiar sentence; but then, be it observed, the parts which compose the sign have ceased to be separately significant: the sentences so used have been brought back to the condition of original or natural language, that of exclamations,—they have ceased to be logical, by having become purely rhetorical.

   • 1871, Hugh Doherty, “Mental Characteristics”, in Organic Philosophy, volume III (Outlines of Biology. Body, Soul, Mind, Spirit.), London: Trübner & Co., […], book III (The Mind), pages 448–449:

     Many well formed and well fed bodies over-indulge in sensuality, take little or no exercise, and remain sickly throughout life; many well formed minds, over-indulge in mere gossip, frivolous conversations, and reading novels, take no serious thought or study, and remain common-place through life; or worse than common-place, being more or less intensely perverted in proportion to original endowments of mental capacity.

Noun

common-place (plural common-places)

1. Archaic form of commonplace.
   • 1676, “A Discouse, in which is given an Idea of the Art of Perswasion”, in The Art of Speaking: Written in French by Messieurs de Port Royal: In Pursuance of a Former Treatise, Intituled, The Art of Thinking. Rendred into English., London: […] W. Godbid, and are to be Sold by M. Pitt, […], fourth part, section III (Of Common Places), page 95:

     Common-places do properly contain nothing but general advice that remembers thoſe who conſult them of all the faces by which a ſubject may be conſidered; […]

   • 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section I”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 287:

     And therefore, whatever in my ſmall Reading, occurs, concerning this our Fellow-Creature, I do never fail to ſet it down, by way of Common-place; […]

   • 1714 October 8, “Sir Walter Raleigh to Prince Henry”, in The Englishman: Being the Sequel of the Guardian, number 2, London: […] Sam. Buckley […], page 10:

     While your Highneſs is forming your ſelf for a Throne, conſider the Laws as ſo many Common-Places in your Study of the Science of Government.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 137:

     It is odd how easily the common-places of morality or of sentiment glide off in conversation. Well, they are “exceedingly helpful,” and so Lord Avonleigh found them.

   • 1836 August, “Anthologia Germanica.—No. VII. Kerner’s Lyrical Poems.”, in The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal, volume VIII, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. and Company, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London, page 144, column 2:

     Common-places that the ear grows intolerant of in conversation,—driftless paradoxes—clumsy descriptions—lack-a-daisiacal lamentations--rhodomontade—puerility—nonsense—these are the stock in trade of the German poet; […]

   • 1857, [John Duguid Milne], “Women of the Middle Ranks—in Their Relation with Domestic Life and Private Society—(continued)”, in Industrial and Social Position of Women, in the Middle and Lower Ranks, London: Chapman and Hall, […], section 3, page 83:

     Under present social arrangements, the concord, the mutual sympathies of a family cannot extend beyond the common-places of domestic life.

   • 1858, “Theodosia Sold at Public Auction”, in Shahmah in Pursuit of Freedom; or, The Branded Hand. Translated from the Original Showiah, and Edited by an American Citizen., New York, N.Y.: Thatcher & Hutchinson, page 401:

     I am in no mood for writing common-places; and everything, after this, appears stale to me. All language is trite and cold; for there is no sign nor image that can properly shadow forth histories that have been written, as with a pen of fire, on the naked tablets of the quick and living heart.

   • 1885 June 1, John A[lbert] Broadus, “Principles of Christian Giving”, in The Free Church Monthly and Missionary Record, number 42, page 164, column 1:

     Christianity has so far softened the jealousies of nationality and race, that the duty of disregarding these in Christian giving has fortunately become a common-place of our teaching, though it still needs to be often and earnestly enforced.

Verb

common-place (third-person singular simple present common-places, present participle common-placing, simple past and past participle common-placed)

1. Archaic form of commonplace.
   • 1713, Henry Felton, A Dissertation on Reading the Classics, and Forming a Just Style. […], London: […] Jonah Bowyer, […], page 199:

     I do not apprehend any great Difficulty in Collecting, and Common-placing an univerſal Hiſtory from the whole Body of Hiſtorians; that is nothing but mechanic Labour.

   • 1830, Henry Roscoe, Eminent British Lawyers, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 84:

     He common-placed largely, and studied with great diligence the year-books and the elder writers of the law.

   • 1837, J[oseph] Chitty, “Of Retaining a Legal Agent—of Articled Clerks, Attornies, Solicitors, Proctors, Certificated Conveyancers, and Notaries—and of Special Pleaders, and Barristers—and the Qualifications and Duties of Each”, in The Practice of the Law in All Its Principal Departments; with a View of Rights, Injuries, and Remedies; […], 3rd edition, volume II, part III, London: S. Sweet, […]; and V. & R. Stevens, […]. Milliken and Son, […], Dublin, page 5 b:

     He should be well read in works relative to Ethics and Moral Philosophy, as the basis of all law; and he should have a due sense of the still higher importance of Religion; and be well acquainted with the distinctions between the tenets of Churchmen, and of every varying description of Dissenter; be familiar with History and Biography, and have been frequently occupied in analysing and common-placing the most striking and valuable parts of every subject he has read; and moreover be resolved sedulously to cultivate and extend all these and other sources of mental improvement during his clerkship.

   • 1843 October, “Art. XI.—1. F. L. Z. Werner’s Sämmtliche Werke. […] 2. Franz Grillparzer: Dieterich Christian Grabbe: Dramatische Werke. […]”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume XXXII, number LXIII, page 112:

     He had no special vocation to the drama: but when he took to it, he common-placed Werner, and so succeeded wonderfully.

   • 1867, John Cordy Jeaffreson, “Readers and Mootmen”, in A Book about Lawyers, volume II, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], part XI (Legal Education), page 187:

     But the student was advised to read this small library again and again, “common-placing” the contents of its volumes, and also “common-placing” all new legal facts.

   • 1902, The New Jersey Law Journal, page 129:

     It is said of him that, in reply to a letter recently written to him by a young member of the Bar, requesting suggestions as to a course of reading, he stated that within the first five years after he became an attorney he common-placed “Cruise on Real Property,” and went on to remark: “But in these degenerate days ‘Cruise on Real Property,’ ‘Coke on Littleton’ and ‘Fearn on Remainders’ are back numbers.”