Word Study
banal
CIDE DICTIONARY
banal, a. [F., fr. ban an ordinance.].
Commonplace; trivial; hackneyed; trite. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
banal, adj. trite, feeble, commonplace.
Derivative
banality n. (pl. -ies). banally adv.
Etymology
orig. in sense 'compulsory', hence 'common to all', f. F f. ban (as BAN)
THESAURUS
banal
asinine, average, back-number, bewhiskered, bland, bromidic, central, cliched, common, commonplace, corny, cut-and-dried, everyday, fade, familiar, fatuous, flat, fusty, hackney, hackneyed, hoary, humdrum, intermediary, intermediate, jejune, mean, medial, median, mediocre, medium, middle-of-the-road, middling, milk-and-water, moderate, moth-eaten, musty, namby-pamby, normal, old, old hat, ordinary, pedestrian, petty, platitudinous, routine, sapless, set, silly, simple, square, stale, standard, stereotyped, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, trivial, truistic, unimaginative, unoriginal, usual, vapid, warmed-over, waterish, watery, well-known, well-worn, wishy-washy, worn, worn thinFor further exploring for "banal" in Webster Dictionary Online