A strawberry field is not a beautiful sight. It lacks the charm and character of a citrus grove, an apple orchard, or even a field of corn. Strawberries now begin and end in plastic. Before planting, an entire field is sealed with plastic sheeting and injected with methyl bromide, a chemical brew that kills harmful microbes and nematodes. Then the sheeting is removed and workers install drip-irrigation hoses in the beds, cover the beds with new, clear plastic, and insert the plants through the plastic by hand. This plastic helps retain heat, keeps the soil moist, and prevents erosion. At the end of the harvest, workers rip the plants from the ground and throw them away, along with the plastic and the drip-irrigation hoses. Second-year plants tend to produce smaller berries. —— Eric Schlosser; In the Strawberry Fields; the Atlantic; Nov 95

'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.' The words are in fact already a bromide when the pompous Malvolio finds and reads them. —— Marjorie Garber; Symptoms of Culture

The next president could live up to that old political bromide "Let's run the government like a business" by staffing his cabinet with some leading figures from the new world of business.—— Daniel H. Pink, "Fast.Gov," Fast Company, Oct 2000

bromide (Dictionary.com)

Bromide was formed from the first element of English bromine and the suffix -ide; the pair of bromine/bromide parallel chlorine/chloride. Bromine itself comes from French brome, from Greek bromos, bad smell. The adjective form is bromidic (pronounced: brO-'mi-dik).

Usage: In Britain, the term refers to a drug used for people suffering from depression or worry.

Synonyms: bore, dullard, tiresome person, proser, wet blanket, pill, stiff (sense 3); banality, cliché, commonplace, platitude, truism (sense 4).

Trivia: The figurative sense of "a dull, conventional person or saying" was popularized by American humorist Gelett Burgess in his book Are You a Bromide? (1906).