Let's talk about what many are afraid of and nevertheless constantly fall into it. This, of course, is about banality. What is it, just find out today.
Banana and commonplace
Do not think that we are crazy. The consonance of words gives rise to various rumors that banana and banality are somehow connected. We decided to dispel them and start with the origin of the word.
To us, it passed, according to the etymological dictionary, from French. Unfortunately, its ancient meaning does not provide an understanding of how banality, vulgarity, and hackneyed became synonyms. Therefore, it is worth looking into the dictionary of foreign words. It says that they called the thing that the overlord gave to his vassal as payment for his services. The original source is formulated somewhat differently, but the main thing to understand: this is what they call something that has passed from personal, individual use to general. Hence the figurative meaning of the noun. Banality - what is it? What everyone knows. Any battered and common words, thoughts. We will come back to this a bit later.
Value
Origin is important, but even more important, which is recorded in the explanatory dictionary. The latter does not contradict his colleagues and claims that the banal is "devoid of originality, beaten, trivial." The noun “banality” has a similar meaning.
At the same time, the truths that everyone knows are necessary. Without them, a stable society cannot be built. Imagine people who are too lazy to engage in self-improvement, but still need something to fill their inner world. Therefore, they take what is literally dissolved in the air, what we breathe. By and large, for example, the phrase "Pushkin is the sun of Russian poetry" is a commonplace, but is it really so harmful, and, most importantly, is it not true? Yes, the banality (what it is, is already clear) is weak because you can not argue with it. There is no conflict and intrigue. True, each person must go through a stage of trivial thoughts in order to give out something original (or not to give out, then how lucky). One way or another, with due effort, you can acquire some identity. Naturally, only with time and constant practice comes the realization of what is flat and what is not, then a person selects words and thoughts more carefully, drowns out the voice of the well-known and forms his own way of speaking and writing.
Synonyms
After the reader has learned the essence of banality, what kind of concept this is, he is no longer so interested, which means it's time to move on to analog words. With their help, you can get used to a previously unprecedented definition. We will not torment the reader for too long, we have a lot of interesting things ahead. Here is a list of replacements:
- stencil;
- triviality;
- truism;
- vulgarity;
- mediocrity;
- routine;
- non-originality;
- bruising.
The list of synonyms for “banality” also contains a lot of book, and therefore incomprehensible definitions, but, believe us, they all mean the same thing - a mental product without traces of the speaker’s personality.
Common truths about life as an example of commonplace
Of course, one could tell about all sorts of literary cliches: “roses - frosts”, “love - blood”, “gray-haired as the moon”, “blonde legs from the ears”, but we will go the other way. Truth that everyone hears, probably as many as 10 thousand times, will fall into the spotlight. List of most common phrases today:
- "Life is a complicated thing."
- “One must leave the comfort zone in order to achieve something in life.”
- "Money rules the world".
- "We need to look for opportunities to move."
- “We need to constantly develop, learn.”
And you can’t argue, right? That is the problem. Everything stated here is true and true, but there is one subtlety: life is diverse. Basically, it is complex, but sometimes people manage to live easily and naturally. Some manage to do this precisely because they have a lot of money, and others - because they have little. Of course, you need to look for opportunities, but what if you came to the point where you feel good and fine, is it worth “leaving the comfort zone” in order to please others?
If literary and philosophical banal truths are not harmful to a person, they need them as a launching pad, as a starting point in independent spiritual searches, then the common truths about life given here, on the contrary, close the road to finding oneself and stop a person’s internal growth as personality. You need to remember only one thing: when they tell you that you do not live like that, it means that it is beneficial for the interlocutor to live differently. Why? This question can be answered only by taking into account the specific situation. And yes, do not forget the trivial, but true proverb: "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
We think it’s clear what banality means, it remains now to draw the right conclusions from the information received.