Let's talk about what many are afraid of and yet constantly fall into it. It is, of course, a matter of banality. What is it, just find out today.
Banana and commonplace
Don't think we're crazy. The consonance of words gives rise to various rumors that the banana and banality are somehow related. We decided to dispel them and start with the origin of the word.
It came to us, according to the etymological dictionary, from French. Its ancient meaning, unfortunately, does not give an understanding of how banality and vulgarity, beatenness have become synonymous. Therefore, it is worth looking into the dictionary of foreign words. It says that this was the name of the thing that the overlord gave to his vassal as payment for his services. In the original source, it is formulated somewhat differently, but the main thing here is to understand: this is the name of something that has passed from personal, individual use to the general. Hence the figurative meaning of the noun. Banality - what is it? What everyone knows. All sorts of hackneyed and commonplace words, thoughts. We will return to this a little later.
Meaning
Origin is important, but what is recorded is even more importantin the explanatory dictionary. The latter does not contradict his colleagues and argues that the banal is "devoid of originality, hackneyed, trivial." The noun "banality" has a similar meaning.
At the same time, the truths that everyone knows are necessary. Without them it is impossible to build a stable society. Imagine people who are too lazy to engage in self-improvement, but still need to fill their inner world with something. 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 banality, but is it really so harmful, and, most importantly, is it not true? Yes, banality (what it is is already clear) is weak in that you cannot argue with it. It has no conflict or intrigue. True, each person must go through a stage of trivial thoughts in order to give out something original (or not to give out, as you're lucky). One way or another, with due effort, you can acquire some originality. 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 in himself and forms his own manner of speaking and writing.
Synonyms
After the reader has learned the essence of banality, what kind of concept it is, he is no longer so interested, which means it's time to move on to analogue words. With their help, you can get used to a previously unseen definition. We will not torment the reader for too long, we have a lot of interesting things ahead of us. Here is the list of replacements:
- stencilling;
- triviality;
- truism;
- vulgarity;
- mediocre;
- ordinary;
- unoriginal;
- beaten up.
The list of synonyms for "banality" also includes quite a few bookish, and therefore incomprehensible definitions, but, believe us, they all mean the same thing - a mental product without traces of the speaker's individuality.
Common truths about life as an example of banality
Of course, one could talk about all sorts of literary cliches: "roses - frosts", "love - blood", "hoary as a harrier", "blonde legs from the ears", but we will go the other way. Truths that everyone hears, probably, 10 thousand times during growing up, will fall into the zone of attention. List of the most frequently used phrases today:
- "Life is complicated."
- "You have to get out of your comfort zone to achieve anything in life."
- "Money rules the world."
- "We need to look for opportunities to move."
- "We must constantly develop, learn."
And you can't argue, right? Therein lies the problem. Everything stated here is true and true, but there is one subtlety: life is diverse. Mostly it is difficult, but sometimes people manage to live easily and naturally. Some people 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 have come to the point where you feel good and great, is it worth it to “leave your comfort zone” in order to please others?
If literary andphilosophical banal truths are not only not harmful to a person, they are necessary for him as a launching pad, as a starting point in independent spiritual searches, then the common truths about life given here, on the contrary, block the road to finding oneself and stop the inner growth of a person as a person. You need to remember only one thing: when they tell you that you live differently, it means that it is beneficial for the interlocutor that you live differently. Why? This question can only be answered by taking into account the specific situation. And yes, don't forget the trivial but true saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
We think it's clear what banality means, now it remains to draw the right conclusions from the information received.
