Etymology

hackneyed

hack·neyed
H4A1C3K5N1E1Y4E1D2

Today it means: Of speech or writing, a phrase, etc.: uninteresting and unoriginal from being repeated too often. Full definition →

English hackney ← Middle English hakeney
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The story

  1. Middle Englishhakeney
  2. Englishhackney
  3. English todayhackneyed

From hackney + -ed. Most likely from the fact that hackney carriages have been used so much, that they are extremely commonplace now.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.