pablum

Meaning

1. (US, alt-of, uncountable, usually) Alternative letter-case form of Pablum (“a type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat”).
2. (US, broadly, uncountable, usually) Mushy, easily digested food; pap; (countable) a specific type of such food.
3. (US, countable, derogatory, figuratively, uncountable, usually) Something overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.

Synonyms

pap

bilgewater

bunk

baby food

sops

tripe

horseshit

Translations

bouillie

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpæbləm/

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.