Pabulum Simplistic Pab Yuh Luhm Noun Bland Intellectual Fare Insipid

pabulum /PAB-yuh-luhm/

noun

Bland intellectual fare: insipid or simplistic ideas, entertainment, writing, etc.

[From Latin pabulum (food, fuel, fodder), from pascere (to feed). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pa- (to protect or feed), which also gave us food, foster, fodder, forage, pasture, pantry, and companion. Earliest documented use: 1661. Originally pabulum was something that nourished. During the 1920s, three Canadian pediatricians developed a bland, soft infant formula that was later marketed under the brand name Pablum and eventually the words pabulum/pablum came to refer to things simplistic or banal.]

"'This is not art,' I said. 'This is casual diversion, pabulum for the merchant class.'" - Haim Watzman; Interzmezzo; The Jerusalem Report (Israel); Dec 19, 2011.