COMMONPLACE

commonplace, a translation of the gr. [greek: koivos topos], i.e. a passage or argument appropriate to several cases; a "common-place book" is a collection of such passages or quotations arranged for reference under general heads either alphabetically or on some method of classification. to such a book the name _adversaria_ was given, which is an adaptation of the latin _adversaria scripta_, notes written on one side, the side opposite (_adversus_), of a paper or book. from its original meaning the word came to be used as meaning something hackneyed, a platitude or truism, and so, as an adjective, equivalent to trivial or ordinary. it was first spelled as two words, then with a hyphen, and so still in the sense of a "common-place book."