laconism

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laconism

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From Latin Laconia, from Ancient Greek Λακεδαίμων (Lakedaímōn, “the region surrounding the city of Sparta”).

laconism (countable and uncountable, plural laconisms)

1. (uncountable, rhetoric) Extreme brevity in expression.

   Synonyms: conciseness, laconicism, succinctness; see also Thesaurus:succinctness

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 20, in The Mayor of Casterbridge‎:

     “Well, where have you been?” he said to her with offhand laconism.

   • 1995 April 24, Steve Wulf, “The Passing of an Era”, in Time:

     […] Joe Montana is finally calling it quits. A retirement party in San Francisco and a press conference in Kansas City, Missouri, are planned for this week, and his agents are shopping him around to the networks as a broadcaster, even though Montana has a reputation for laconism.

2. (countable) A very or notably brief expression.

   Synonyms: brevity, epigram

   • 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals‎, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 37:

     The hand of PROVIDENCE writes often by abbreviatures, hieroglyphicks or short characters, which, like the Laconism on the wall, are not to be made out but by a hint or key from that SPIRIT which indited them.

   • 1882, Adolphus William Ward, chapter 6, in Charles Dickens‎, London: Macmillan, page 154:

     Perhaps the most striking difference between [A Tale of Two Cities] and his other novels may seem to lie in the all but entire absence from it of any humour or attempt at humour; for neither the brutalities of that “honest tradesman” Jerry, nor the laconisms of Miss Pross, can well be called by that name.

• laconic

• Atticism

• limacons, limaçons

Borrowed from French laconisme.

laconism n (uncountable)

1. laconism