pat
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pæt/
ipa: [pʰæt]
ipa: [pʰæt̚]
ipa: [pʰæˀt̚]
enpr: pǎt
rhymes: -æt
Forms: form: more pat
form: most pat
Etymology: From Middle English *patten, alteration (with loss of medial l) of platten, pletten (“to pat”), from Old English plættan (“to buffet, strike, slap, smack, give a sounding blow”), from Proto-Germanic *plat- (“to strike, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *blod-, *bled- (“to strike, beat”). Cognate with Middle Dutch platten, pletten (“to strike, bruise, crush, rub”), German platzen (“to split, burst, break up”), Bavarian patzen (“to pat”), Swedish plätta, pjätta (“to pat, tap”). For loss of l, compare patch for platch; pate for plate, etc. See plat.
Senses: examples: text: a pat expression
text: Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind a story so pat, you may think it is coin’d, on purpose to answer you, out of my mint; but, I can assure you, I saw it in print.
ref: 1788, William Cowper, Pity For Poor Africans 17–20
text: Come, stack arms, Men! Pile on the rails; stir up the campfire bright; no matter if the canteen fails, we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, to swell the Brigade's rousing song, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
We see him now — the old slouched hat cocked o’er his eye askew, the shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat, so calm, so blunt, so true.
ref: 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way
glosses: Exactly suitable, fitting, apt; timely, convenient, opportune, ready for the occasion; especially of things spoken.
examples: text: While most AIDS activists and researchers I spoke with agreed I shouldn't offer pat safe/unsafe categories, let me share some pretty widely accepted information.
ref: 1987 August 15, Laurie Sherman, “What's A Dyke To Do? A Lesbian Reluctantly Enters The Age Of Safe Sex”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 5, page 11:
text: The pat answer is that college students should consider graduate school as a way to delay a job search until things turn around, and that more high school students should go to college to improve their prospects.
ref: 2010 May 22, “Jobs and the Class of 2010”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Space Jam: A New Legacy takes almost nothing but wrong turns, all leading to a glittering CGI trash heap of cameos, pat life lessons, and stale internet catchphrases.
ref: 2021 July 14, A. A. Dowd, “Space Jam: A New Legacy is one big, witless commercial for Warner Bros properties”, in The A.V. Club:
text: Pat responses from management seemed to be multiple variations on the theme of “We value your feedback.”
ref: 2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 2, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN:
synonyms: word: banal
word: bromidic
word: quotidian
word: clichéd
word: commonplace
word: cookie-cutter
word: corny
word: dog-eared
word: everyday
word: hackneyed
word: hoary
word: meh
word: overdone
word: pat
word: played out
word: prosaic
word: shopworn
word: stale
word: stock
word: threadbare
word: timeworn
word: tired
word: trite
word: unoriginal
word: vapid
word: warmed-over
word: well-worn
glosses: Trite, being superficially complete, lacking originality.
Derived terms: patly
patness
stand pat