Is the phrase "so to speak" hackneyed? I use it every so often and used it in this post. See Bethree's response. After using the phrase, I decided to read a little about it. I found a discussion in Phrasefinder. While they couldn't find much about it, but they discouraged the use. What do you think?

Not hackneyed, I don't think, because not that many people use it. It's more of an upper crust way of saying "sort of" or "in a way," and right up there with "as it were" as bethree5 says.

It lends a tinge of "so-called" to whatever statement has just been made, softening it, removing the speaker a tad from direct responsibility for the impact of his words. It's like a tiny little buffer that says, "don't blame me; that's just what other's say!" Or it can be a way of pointing out something clever that has just been said, as in the instance that set off this new thread!

WM

William Safire wrote an article about terms such as so to speak, if you will, and as it were. He calls them "deferentialisms" and "verbal stutter-steps. He says rhetoricians call them metanoia or correctio.

Tinman

It will be nice to fling in the face of a certain deferentialist I know such lines as, "Don't you think you're being a little metanoid?" or "I stand correctio, your honor!"

Wordmatic

Nice article, Tinman, and I wish you'd check in on us a little more frequently.

I liked Safire's description of deferentialisms as being "smarmily pretentious;" I think I shall refrain from using them!