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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.