May 1
What does hackneyed mean?
Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 in Misused words and expressions
Feature
Another hackneyed word; like factor it usually adds nothing to the sentence in which it occurs.
Poor: A feature of the entertainment especially worthy of mention was the singing of Miss A.
Better: (Use the same number of words to tell what Miss A. sang, or if the programme has already been given, to tell something of how she sang.)
As a verb, in the advertising sense of offer as a special attraction, to be avoided.
From: William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style, 1918.
Hackneyed means so overused as to have become uninteresting.
It comes from hackney which means an ordinary horse.