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boilerplate
Feb. 1st, 2024 08:10 amboilerplate (BOI-ler-playt) - n., steel in the form of flat plates used in making steam boilers; journalistic material made available already typeset by syndicates, originally in plate form, for easy incorporation into newspapers or other publications; standardized or set language that is meant to be used repeatedly, such as in a contract, warranty, and so on; hackneyed or conventional language; (sports) snow with a hard icy crust.
To give only the most common meanings, roughly in order of development. Back before computers and electronic layout/typesetting systems, small newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other material supplied by large publishing syndicates. These were delivered already typeset as metal plates, which meant less work for the paper but also made them very hard to change, which many printers thought looked like the plates used for making water boilers (and ship hulls, but never mind that) -- this sense is attested as of 1893. The rest of the metaphoric extensions are pretty clear.
---L.
To give only the most common meanings, roughly in order of development. Back before computers and electronic layout/typesetting systems, small newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other material supplied by large publishing syndicates. These were delivered already typeset as metal plates, which meant less work for the paper but also made them very hard to change, which many printers thought looked like the plates used for making water boilers (and ship hulls, but never mind that) -- this sense is attested as of 1893. The rest of the metaphoric extensions are pretty clear.
---L.
