| 词组 | old cliché, old maxim |
| 释义 | old cliché, old maxim Copperud 1980 and Kilpatrick 1984 object to old cliché and Kilpatrick to old maxim on the same grounds that they object to old adage. The basic argument is set forth at old adage. But maxim and cliché are not quite like adage. Neither is used particularly often with old, although both are occasionally, and cliché more commonly than maxim. Cliché does have some tendency to attract intensifying modifiers that could be objected to as redundant, if some quibbler chose to do so. Among these (in our files) are time-worn, familiar, tired, traditional, and overworked. Old pops up more often than these do: • I laughed too much at this old cliché, but she was certain I had never heard the joke before —Burl Ives, Wayfaring Stranger, 1952 • ... as the old cliché has it —Harper's, May 1939 • ... the old cliché that "to serve government is a privilege." —Vannevar Bush, N. Y. Times Mag., 13 June 1954 Sometimes venerable: • So firmly established is this venerable cliché — Ernest Newman, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 27 Mar. 1955 Kilpatrick wonders why we can't have new clichés. Well, we have had them: • The ancient gag of the B-picture director who announced, "The boss says, don't use any more old clichés, so we gotta think up some new clichés" — Craig Rice, quoted in Saturday Rev., 18 Mar. 1950 Clichés also come in modern and current. A maxim is most often a pithy expression of some rule of conduct or general principle and need not be old at all, so modification of maxim by old or ancient is not really open to the objection of redundancy. • Our people would do well to recollect that ancient maxim of Frederick the Great —Henry Adams, letter, 10 July 1863 • There is an ancient maxim "Many receive advice, few profit by it" —Sara M. Jordan, New England Jour, of Medicine, 21 May 1953 • It is an old military maxim that no successful offensive can be launched except from a secure base — Vannevar Bush, N.Y. Times Mag., 13 June 1954 • ... the old Greek maxim that a large book is a great evil —Historical Introduction, OED Supplement, 1933 We conclude that there is no reason to object to old with maxim and little or none to object to old with cliché. We have chosen examples of a certain age to show that such use, if not as old as old adage, is not of particularly recent occurrence. |
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