COMMONPLACE BOOK • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Commonplace book

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/kˈɑmənplˌeɪs bʊk/ Listen

noun

Commonplace n.

An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude.

A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to. "Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace."

Commonplace book, a book in which records are made of things to be remembered.

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Etymology of 'Commonplace book'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Commonplace book" Quotes from Famous Books

... opportunity to peer into her secrets, the Grecians and Latinists who dine on a thought of Tacitus, sup on a phrase of Thucydides, spend their life in brushing the dust from library shelves, in keeping guard over a commonplace book, or a papyrus, are all predestined. So great is their abstraction or their ecstasy, that nothing that goes on around them strikes their attention. Their unhappiness is consummated; in full light of noon they scarcely even perceive it. Oh happy men! a thousand times happy! Example: Beauzee, ...

— The Physiology of Marriage, Part I. • Honore de Balzac