laconic

See also: Laconic and lacònic

English

WOTD – 31 March 2007

Alternative forms

• laconick (obsolete)

Etymology

Wikiquote

Wikidata

From Latin Lacōnicus (“Spartan”), from Ancient Greek Λακωνικός (Lakōnikós, “Laconian”). Laconia was the region inhabited and ruled by the Spartans, who were known for their brevity in speech.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ləˈkɒnɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ləˈkɑnɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnɪk

Adjective

laconic (comparative more laconic, superlative most laconic)

1. Using as few words as possible; pithy and concise.
   • August 17, 1736, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift:

     I grow laconick even beyond laconicism; for sometimes I return only yes, or no, to questionary or petitionary epistles of half a yard long.

   • 1738, Zachary Grey, An Attempt towards the Character of the Royal Martyr King Charles I:

     His sense was strong and his style laconic.

Synonyms

• concise, pithy, terse

Antonyms

• bombastic, long-winded, verbose, loquacious, prolix

Related terms

• laconical
• laconically
• laconism
• spartan

Translations

using as few words as possible

• Belarusian: лаканічны (lakaničny)
• Bulgarian: лаконичен (bg) m (lakoničen)
• Catalan: lacònic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 簡潔 / 简洁 (zh) (jiǎnjié)

• Czech: lakonický (cs)
• Danish: lakonisk (da), kortfattet
• Estonian: lakooniline
• Finnish: lakoninen (fi), lyhytsanainen, niukkasanainen
• French: laconique (fr)
• German: lakonisch (de), wortkarg (de)
• Greek: λακωνικός (el) (lakonikós)
• Haitian Creole: lakonik
• Hebrew: לקוני (he) (lakoni)
• Hungarian: lakonikus (hu), szűkszavú (hu), szófukar (hu)
• Irish: gearr-abartha
• Italian: laconico (it) m
• Japanese: 簡潔 (ja) (かんけつ, kanketsu)
• Macedonian: ла́конски (lákonski)
• Malay: ringkas (ms)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lakonisk

  Nynorsk: lakonisk

• Polish: lakoniczny (pl)
• Portuguese: lacónico (pt) (Portugal), lacônico (pt) (Brazil)
• Romanian: laconic (ro)
• Russian: лакони́чный (ru) (lakoníčnyj), немногосло́вный (ru) (nemnogoslóvnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: làkōnskī (sh), lakòničan
• Spanish: lacónico (es)
• Swedish: lakonisk (sv)
• Thai: สั้น (th) (sân), กระชับ (th) (grà-cháp), รวบรัด (th), กะทัดรัด (th) (gà-tát-rát), สั้นได้ใจความ (sân-dâai-jai-kwaam)
• Tibetan: ཚིག་ཉུང་དོན་བསྡུས་པ (tshig nyung don bsdus pa), ཚིག་ཉུང་དོན་ཚང (tshig nyung don tshang), ཁ་ཉུང (kha nyung)
• Ukrainian: лаконічний (lakoničnyj)
• Welsh: byreiriog, laconig

Anagrams

• cloacin, calocin, concial, conical, calcino, colanic

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French laconique.

Adjective

laconic m or n (feminine singular laconică, masculine plural laconici, feminine and neuter plural laconice)

1. laconic

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	laconic		laconică		laconici	laconice
	definite	laconicul		laconica		laconicii	laconicele
genitive- dative	indefinite	laconic		laconice		laconici	laconice
	definite	laconicului		laconicei		laconicilor	laconicelor