Tersenesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of being concise and brief in expression
2. Instances or examples of brevity in communication or writing that emphasize clarity and succinctness
3. A manner of speaking that is marked by a lack of unnecessary words, resulting in succinctness

Etymology: This is the plural of "terseness," which is an inflected form, so the story belongs to its base. "Terse" came into English in the 1600s from Latin "tersus," the past participle of "tergere," meaning "to wipe" or "to polish." The original sense was of something rubbed smooth and clean, and the move to "brief and clear" came from the idea of a style stripped of excess, much as a polished surface has nothing extra on it. The suffix "-ness" is an old native English ending. It descends from Old English "-nes," which turned an adjective into a noun for a quality, so "terse" plus "-ness" gives "terseness," the quality of being terse. Its plural, "tersenesses," counts separate instances or kinds of that quality, which is the sense the dictionary gives for speech with no unnecessary words.

Synonyms: conciseness, brevity, succinctness, compactness

Antonyms: verbosity, wordiness, prolixity