As earlier highlighted in the first part of our discussion, the word cliché comes from the French verb clincher, meaning to make a metal casting of a stereotype. According to the English purists and masters, it is used in English to mean an outworn or hackneyed expression. There are several of clichés which edges are blunt, and no longer useful but still stealing the show, even shamelessly being embraced by the majority of those I should describe as creative writers and scholars. The change has been slow, so to say, because as one of the English pragmatists noted, it is extraordinarily difficult to avoid using clichés in speech and writing. They present themselves at every turn, begging for employment. Clichés have held the people captive, especially writers that never fancy the use of fresh phrases to replace the outworn ones. Certainly, a number of phrases became popular because of their vividness and then became clichés because of their popularity. Aspiring writers, and even older generation of writers should have it at the back of their minds that shying away from words and phrases that have outlived their usefulness would indeed, galvanise or compel them into searching for better replacements to make their stories distinct and original. Always go after the unpopular words and phrases, then you have created record that others would begin to follow or imitate you.
Again, you are challenged to dig deeper, look for new angles to avoid the danger of these words or phrases being so commonly seen and heard. The English masters insist that Proverbs have supplied us with many clichés. So numerous that it spoils the party when we indulge in them at random to put our thoughts and opinions in the public space. One should just be careful and use them sparingly; obviously, there will be occasions no harm will be done using any of them, as one purist observed. The same author reasoned that clichés can easily become a habit and are apt to lead to laziness in thought, speech and writing. Take a look at these clichés to see what I mean; “a bird in the hand,” “too many cooks,” “the blind leading the blind,” “a stitch in time,” and many others have lost much of their original edge. Some phrases have escaped from their Proverbs and taken on a life of their own, only to become clichés in the process, one prolific writer and master of the language, wrote. Other closely related, family of clichés also traces its origins to great works of literature and even the Bible had had its fair share of clichés. Strive to be original, avoid repeating what other people say or write about through dint of hard work- research, come out with your own idea and let other people copy from you.
There are plenty of reference materials to aid you in the quest to sound fresher. For instance, the dictionary, and the English thesaurus are some of them. The English purists and masters listed about 50 clichés to look out for which are still in daily use despite the fact that their edges are becoming increasingly blunt, they argued. We would be taking turns to analyse them for better understanding of the argument and explain possible alternatives to them. I am sure you are familiar with expressions such as; “add insult to injury,” “as a matter of fact,” “as well as can be expected,” “at the end of your tether,” “avoid like a plague.”
