Etymology
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trite (adj.)

"used till so common as to have lost its novelty and interest," 1540s, from Latin tritus "worn, oft-trodden," of language "much-used, familiar, commonplace," past-participle adjective from terere "to rub, wear down" (from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn"). Related: Tritely; triteness.

Entries linking to trite

*tere- (1)

*terə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, also to boring, drilling, piercing; and to the rubbing of cereal grain to remove the husks, and thus to threshing.

It forms all or part of: atresia; attorn; attorney; attrition; contour; contrite; detour; detriment; diatribe; drill (v.) "bore a hole;" lithotripsy; return; septentrion; thrash; thread; thresh; throw; threshold; trauma; trepan; tribadism; tribology; tribulation; trite; triticale; triturate; trout; trypsin; tryptophan; turn.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit turah "wounded, hurt;" Greek teirein "to rub, rub away;" Latin terere "to rub, thresh, grind, wear away," tornus "turning lathe;" Old Church Slavonic tiro "to rub;" Lithuanian trinu, trinti "to rub," Old Irish tarathar "borer," Welsh taraw "to strike."

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Definitions of trite

trite (adj.)
repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse;
the trite metaphor `hard as nails'
his remarks were trite and commonplace
Synonyms: banal / commonplace / hackneyed / old-hat / shopworn / stock / threadbare / timeworn / tired / well-worn
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near trite

triskelion

trismus

trisomy

trist

Tristram

trite

triticale

tritium

Triton

triturate

trituration

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