platitude \PLAT-uh-tood; -tyood\, noun:
1. Staleness of ideas or language; triteness.
2. A thought or remark that is banal, trite, or stale.
Yet a curious thing happens in this book: Whatever promise it offers of satire and enlightened vision dissipates into cliche and platitude.
--Edward Rothstein, "Against Galactic Rhetoric," New York Times, April 3, 1983
She'll have to cut the platitudes and start saying something unusual and provocative, which she hasn't yet.
--Jonathan Alter, "Why It's Time to Let Loose," Newsweek, December 6, 1999
Platitude derives from French plat, "flat." It is related to plate, a flat piece of metal or a flat dish in which food is served or from which it is eaten; and plateau, a broad, level, elevated area of land. The adjective form of platitude is platitudinous.