platitudes

A malapropism attributed to Former Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley who said "Together we must rise to ever higher and higher platitudes." Although an actual word, the new definition implied by the Mayor and the word's apparent construction from the words "plateau" and "altitudes" make it a metaplastic homonym. A possible definition extracted from the Mayor's usage could be "an unattainable metaphorical place that is striven towards by speaking increasingly more trite, unoriginal and insipid remarks". Contributed by: Tony Coppoletta. (Originally posted March 18, 2002)