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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
English in UK

Origin of "boilerplate" (legal fine print)

"boilerplate" is the fine print (legal jargon),
the same old boring language that you skip.
2 a : standardized textb : formulaic or hackneyed language
<<<
How did the word come to mean that?
Boilerplate is (I think) the board into which
you put letters of moveable type.
So my guess is that instead of assembling new
text, certain disclaimers, etc.
(already in a boilerplate) were put in by default?

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Top answer

"T. " schrieb im Newsbeitrag [nq:1]"boilerplate" is the fine print (legal jargon), the same old boring language that you skip. 2 a : standardized text ...

  • "T.
  • " schrieb im Newsbeitrag [nq:1]"boilerplate" is the fine print (legal jargon), the same old boring language that you skip.
  • 2 a : standardized text ...
  • guess is that instead of assembling new text, certain disclaimers, etc.
  • [/nq] That's one possible derivation.
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4 Answers
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"T. Z." schrieb im Newsbeitrag
[nq:1]"boilerplate" is the fine print (legal jargon), the same old boring language that you skip. 2 a : standardized text ... guess is that instead of assembling new text, certain disclaimers, etc. (already in a boilerplate) were put in by default?[/nq]
That's one possible derivation. Another theory is that a "boilerplate" was a sheet of metal of standard s
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[nq:1]Boilerplate is (I think) the board into which you put letters of moveable type.[/nq]
Not quite. In days yonder, newspapers were printed with moveable type but things like adverts were provided to the papers on a single solid plate which contained the whole advert. These plates had mounting holes at a specific spacing along the edges which resembled the removable plates that were bolted o
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[nq:2]Boilerplate is (I think) the board into which you put letters of moveable type.[/nq]
[nq:1]Not quite. In days yonder, newspapers were printed with moveable type but things like adverts were provided to the papers ... onto the phrase to mean something that didn't /need/ to be changed. Fairly confident that this is the correct origin.[/nq]
Online dictionaries suggest this also.
I b
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[nq:1]Online dictionaries suggest this also. I believe I am correct in saying that moveable type was just the first stage in producing plates which were then used for the actual printing (attached to a roller).[/nq]
The type wasn't particularly movable - it would be linotype, each line (of an individual column) cast by the typesetting machine.

A papier-maché mould (called a flong) wou

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