I believe the word "trite" generally implies overuse to the point of uselessness. These warnings very much have a use to indigenous peoples, and they serve that use well - so I'd argue that they don't qualify.

Sure, I just meant 'it is common' is not an argument that it's not trite, it's the uselessness as you put it that you need to contest.

But anyway like I said I don't have a particular view or reason to care about how trite it is, just a silly tangential point. :)

Fair enough :)

web1913:

> Worn out; common; used until so common as to have lost novelty and interest; hackneyed; stale; as, a trite remark; a trite subject.

wiktionary:

> From Latin trītus "worn out," a form of the verb terō (“I wear away, wear out”).

> 1. Often in reference to a word or phrase: used so many times that it is commonplace, or no longer interesting or effective; worn out, hackneyed.

> 2. (law) So well established as to be beyond debate: trite law.

so i think you're kind of right; certainly the etymological origin means 'worn out', which implies 'useless', but it seems like it's commonly used nowadays in english to simply mean 'used very commonly', without the implication of uselessness, in particular in the legal sense