common place

See also: common-places and commonplaces

English

Noun

common place (plural common places)

1. Obsolete form of commonplace.
   • 1581, Iohn Marbeck, “To the Right Honorable, and His Especiall good Lord, the Earle of Huntington, […]”, in A Booke of Notes and Common Places, with Their Expositions, Collected and Gathered out of the Workes of Diuers Singular Writers, and Brought Alphabetically into Order. […], London: […] Thomas East:

     Which miſerable and deceiued ſort (but yet truly moſt wilfull & froward people) that I might by the mercye of God in ſome meaſure perſwade, if not wholy conuert to the truth, I haue the rather employed my diligence in collecting theſe common places (ſincerely expoũded by the authors themſelues) that in the reading and earneſt ſtudy therof, there may ſome ſparke of Gods true knowledge, kindle aright vnderſtanding in them, which the Lord graunt, that his onely praiſe & glory may therein be ſhewed.

   • 1709, “Will’s Coffee-house, May 30.”, in The Tatler; or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq, volume the first, number 22, London: […] C. Bathurst, J. Buckland, W. Strahan, […], published 1774, pages 132–133:

     But as every man is moſt concerned for himſelf, I, who am of a Saturnine and melancholy complexion, cannot but murmur, that there is not an equal invitation to write Tragedies; having by me, in my book of common places, enough to enable me to finiſh a very ſad one by the fifth of the next month.

   • 1752 March 7, The Rambler, volume VIII, number 206, Edinburgh: […] Sands, Murray, and Cochran. Sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], page 161:

     The only common places of his memory are his meals; and if you aſk him at what time an event happened, he conſiders whether he heard it after a dinner of turbot, or of veniſon.