Commonplace

Commonplace is a term with several related senses in English. As an adjective, it denotes something ordinary, usual, or widely encountered. As a noun, it can refer to a person’s usual experiences or to a commonplace book, a personal notebook used to collect quotations, observations, and ideas. The word also appears in rhetoric and philosophy as “commonplaces” or “loci communes”—stock topics or maxims used as starting points for argument or writing.

Etymology and scope: The term derives from Latin communis, meaning shared or general, passing through Old French into English. The sense of a “commonplace” book emerged in the early modern period, when scholars and clerics began compiling excerpts from their readings to aid memory and composition. This practice is connected with the broader idea of loci communes or topoi—standard, reusable arguments or themes used in discourse and education.

Historical practice: Renaissance and early modern scholars popularized commonplace books as tools for self-education and rhetorical practice. Readers collected maxims, quotes, and observations from literature, sermons, and travel, then rearranged them to assist writing, speaking, or teaching. The method aided the development of personal knowledge bases and influenced subsequent scholarly and pedagogical methods, leaving a legacy in the way people curate and reuse ideas.

Modern usage: Today, “commonplace” remains a general adjective for something ordinary or unremarkable. The noun sense survives mainly in historical or literary contexts as the name for a notebook or collection. The underlying practice—systematically gathering noteworthy material for reference—persists in modern note-taking, bibliographies, and digital curation, though the traditional physical commonplace book is less common.