# Trope? Nope. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 27, 2013, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280 "2013-12-27T10:51:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![666sd666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/b3f665/32.png) [@666sd666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/666sd666)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/1 "2013-12-27T10:51:17Z")
In [Has a stopped clock ever really helped solve a crime? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3137/has-a-stopped-clock-ever-really-helped-solve-a-crime), Cecil uses “trope” to mean “cliché” (stopped timepiece solves a crime), but trope really means “figure of speech”. Trope is a shameless buzzword and almost no one really knows the meaning of it. That doesn’t stop them from dropping it here and there, hoping to sound erudite. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/2 "2013-12-27T12:39:29Z")
Complaining about the “true” meaning of a word versus its evolved use; isn’t _that_ a trope? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/3 "2013-12-27T17:45:19Z")
[Mirrium-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope) > [@](#): > > a : a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speech > b : a common or overused theme or device : cliché \ Cecil, $1000, kayaker, $1000, and 666sd666, just playing. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/4 "2013-12-27T19:05:01Z")
Three years on the dope and our OP breaks his silence for _this_. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/5 "2013-12-27T20:02:08Z")
It’s also the collective noun for Henry Miller’s semiautobiographical novels. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/6 "2013-12-28T01:20:16Z")
The new (and it is new) sense of _trope_ was added to the in-progress new edition of the _Oxford English Dictionary_ in 2007. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/7 "2013-12-28T17:22:47Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > The new (and it is new) sense of _trope_ was added to the in-progress new edition of the _Oxford English Dictionary_ in 2007. But it’s been used that way for decades. I know because I’ve used it in my critical work for decades. And damn you Gaudere for my typoing Merriam. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/8 "2013-12-28T17:31:11Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > The new (and it is new) sense of _trope_ was added to the in-progress new edition of the _Oxford English Dictionary_ in 2007. English dictionaries are descriptive; they follow established usage, sometimes by decades. (The French tend to stay with proscriptive dictionaries that attempt to define and control the language. We’re discussing English here.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/9 "2013-12-29T02:42:53Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The French tend to stay with proscriptive dictionaries “Prescriptive”. A “proscriptive” dictionary would list only words that shouldn’t be used. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/10 "2013-12-29T02:58:37Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > “Prescriptive”. A “proscriptive” dictionary would list only words that shouldn’t be used. Isn’t that the entire purpose of the French Academy? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/11 "2013-12-29T03:34:28Z")
How does one say “typo” in approved French? ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/12 "2013-12-29T20:29:01Z")
Typeau. Typeaux for plural. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/13 "2013-12-29T22:07:41Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > The new (and it is new) sense of _trope_ was added to the in-progress new edition of the _Oxford English Dictionary_ in 2007. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > But it’s been used that way for decades. I know because I’ve used it in my critical work for decades. > > And damn you Gaudere for my typoing Merriam. Without trying to speak for John, the _new_ meaning added by the OED is as follows– > [@OED](#): > > Draft additions March 2007 > > A significant or recurrent theme; a motif. > 1975 Chicago Tribune 14 Dec. vii. 2/5 Barthelme is funning with the eternal trope of fatherhood. > > 1991 D. Rieff Los Angeles ii. viii. 133 A more unvarnished version of the same trope was Ridley Scotts film Blade Runner. > > 1996 Éire—Ireland Spring–Summer 191 The dichotomy between admissable and inadmissable history, between official memory and private experience that Casey sees as the dominant trope of Irish ethnicity in New York. > > 2006 Observer (Nexis) 23 July 26 [He]…avoids the routine tropes of teen interest while allying youth’s oldest theme—loss of innocence—with that most modern of concerns, date rape OED didnt have it that way previously. Yes, it was used as you used it, **Exapno**. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/14 "2013-12-29T22:46:40Z")
Motif is actually closer to how I use it than cliche would be. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-nope/677280/15 "2013-12-30T01:25:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Isn’t that the entire purpose of the French Academy? My wife once improvised (in French) an entire comedy sketch called _Les gendarmes d’Académie_.