sillyismn.
/ˈsɪlɪɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈsɪliˌɪz(ə)m/ A silly expression, utterance, or idea.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > [noun] > that which is or can be spoken > in particular style or evoking particular emotion
sugarc1374
pathos1579
satire1606
consolatory1654
sillyism1709
unction1815
1709 E. Baynard Conc. Cold Immersions in J. Floyer Ψυχρολουσία (ed. 3) ii. 268 They fled with a blushless Face to their old Sillyism, ‘Ha! Lord! who would have thought it?’
1828 Age 23 Nov. 375/2 The extra-judicial sillyisms of the bench should never appear in print.
1840 Blackwood's Mag. 47 714 Let any contemporary sumph give vent to a sillyism respecting a great man and it is sure to be transmitted to the latest posterity.
1965 Steubenville (Ohio) Herald-Star 8 Apr. 6/2 The bland supposition that working mothers cause juvenile delinquency..strikes me as a sillyism that cannot be proved.
2007 Television Week (Nexis) 20 Aug. 6 ‘I can hardly wait to see that segment’, is another on-air sillyism, to coin a word.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1709