Terse

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /tɜːs/

Definitions

1. Using few words in a way that is brief and concise, often without unnecessary detail or elaboration
2. Marked by a concise and clear use of language that minimizes unnecessary detail while effectively conveying meaning
3. Characterized by a sharp brevity and succinctness in expression, often conveying information without elaboration or superfluous language

Etymology: Before "terse" described speech or writing, it meant something quite physical: clean, polished, or neatly wiped. The Latin "tersus" was the past participle of "tergere," "to wipe or rub clean," so the word began as a description of a surface rather than a sentence. Its sense of smooth, neat finish carried over into English first, and the move to describing style came later, when neatness of expression was treated as a kind of polish. The shift from "clean" to "concise" rests on a simple metaphor. A text stripped of excess words looks as scrubbed and unadorned as a freshly wiped surface, so writers who prized bare, economical prose borrowed the older physical term. The result is that "terse" now sounds like a verdict on brevity, sometimes a sharp one, even though its original sense was entirely favourable.

Synonyms: concise, brief, succinct, pithy, curt

Antonyms: verbose, wordy, long-winded, prolonged, expansive