pablum
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Pablum
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin pābulum (“nourishment”), with the modern sense coming via the brand name Pablum.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpæbləm/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
pablum (usually uncountable, plural pablums)
- (derogatory) Anything overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.
- 1971, Jules Archer, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, 1968: Year of Crisis, J. Messner, →ISBN, page 94:
- “If you want to be filled with pablum and tranquilizers,” Kennedy told crowds, “then don’t vote for me. I’m not going to give you any tired answers. […] ”
- 1992 October 23, Ben Wattenberg, “Writer Likes Clinton”, in Daily Sentinel, page 2:
- The Republican argument today is pablum, mush and saccharine. (Which exhausts my edible metaphors.)
- 1996, David H. Gelernter, 1939, the Lost World of the Fair, New York: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 29:
- Maybe we just don’t buy the pap, pablum and Pollyanification of the Futurama world view any longer because we are simply more sophisticated than the 1939ers.
- 2008, James Boyle, The Public Domain:
- To me, these points seem bland, boring, obvious—verging on tautology or pablum. To many believers in the worldview I have described, they are either straightforward heresy or a smokescreen for some real, underlying agenda—which is identified as communism, anarchism, or, somewhat confusingly, both.
- 2022 July 27, Keith Schneider, “James Lovelock, Whose Gaia Theory Saw the Earth as Alive, Dies at 103”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- A few scientists greeted the hypothesis as a thoughtful way to explain how living systems influenced the planet. Many others, however, called it New Age pablum.
- (dated) Nourishment.
- Alternative letter-case form of Pablum
- 1957, C. M. Kornbluth, Frederik Pohl, Wolfbane:
- The juice from its hydro-power dam was needed to supply meager light to a million homes and to cook the pablum for two million brand-new babies.
Derived terms
Translations
something bland or simplistic
nourishment — see nourishment
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