pablum
/ˈpæbl(ə)m/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.73 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Alternative letter-case form of Pablum (“a type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat”).
American usage; Uncountable
noun
Mushy, easily digested food; pap; (countable) a specific type of such food.
American usage; Uncountable
noun
Something overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.
American usage; Countable; Derogatory; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The juice from its hydro-power dam was needed to supply meager light to a million homes and to cook the pablum for two million brand-new babies."
- "The smallest of attentions on his wife's part towards the baby […] struck him as having the nature of an affront. Clothes would have to be bought, a carriage, toys, all manner of pablums and bromides—then even larger clothes, a larger carriage, a longer bed— […]"
- "They [tamarinds] can be used to sweeten and season foods such as: […] Cereal products—including Africa's many types of porridges, gruels, and pablums (fufu, ugali, toh, ogi, kisra, pap, couscous, and the rest)."
- ""If you want to be filled with pablum and tranquilizers," [Robert F.] Kennedy told crowds, "then don’t vote for me. I'm not going to give you any tired answers. […] I'm going to tell it like it is.""
- "The Republican argument today is pablum, mush and saccharine. (Which exhausts my edible metaphors.) Do Republicans really think that America's big problems are "taxes" and "trust"? Give me a cake."
- "[Adolf] Hitler's career coincided with the growth of these tensions. He offered scapegoats, revenge, nationalism, racial superiority, and prowess at arms—pablums for a nervous people."
Etymology
A variant of Pablum, the name of a food supplement for malnourished infants developed in 1931 by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Mead Johnson & Company, probably a shortening of Latin pābulum (“fodder for animals; food, nourishment”), from pā(scō) (“to feed, nourish; to drive to pasture; to support; to tend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, ward; to shepherd”)) + -bulum (suffix denoting an instrument) (from Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix denoting an instrument or tool))), or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-dʰlom (from *peh₂- + *-dʰlom). The name was trademarked in the United States in 1932.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpæbl(ə)m/
- British English: /ˈpæbləm/
Usage
- American usage
- Uncountable
- Countable
- Derogatory