Etymology

poncif

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Today it means: An unoriginal or uninspired idea; a cliché. Full definition →

French poncif ← Late Latin pōmex ← Latin pūmex
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)poH(y)-“foam”
  2. Latin · derived frompūmex“pumice”
  3. Late Latin · derived frompōmex“pumice”
  4. French · borrowed fromponcif“cliché, stereotype”
  5. English todayponcif

Borrowed from French poncif (“cliché, stereotype”), from French poncif (“stencil”), from poncer (“to copy with pouncing paper”) + -if, from ponce (“pumice”) + -er, from Late Latin pōmex (“pumice”), from Latin pūmex (“pumice”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)poH(y)- (“foam”).

Words from the same roots

Latinpūmex all →

pumicepounce

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.