laconic

See also: Laconic and lacònic

English

WOTD – 31 March 2007

Alternative forms

• laconick (obsolete)

Etymology

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. Of speech or writing, communicative through the use of as few words as possible.

   Synonyms: terse, succinct, concise, pithy, lapidary

   Antonyms: verbose, prolix, loquacious, long-winded, bombastic

   Near-synonym: brief

2. Of a speaker or writer, communicating through the use of as few words as possible.

   Antonyms: talkative, chatty, verbose, prolix, loquacious, long-winded, bombastic

   Near-synonyms: taciturn, untalkative, terse, quiet, spartan

   • 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.

3. (Australia, sometimes proscribed) Of a person, laidback; casual; not intense.
   • 2022 June 15, Donal Wilson, “Mid-season review: Brisbane Lions”, in Roar‎^[1]:

     A key player up the other end of the ground is Harris Andrews, who sometimes gets unfairly criticised for his laconic playing style. He desperately cares for this team.

Derived terms

• laconicism
• laconicly
• unlaconic

Related terms

• laconical
• laconically
• laconism

Translations

using as few words as possible

• Arabic: وجيز
• 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
• Dutch: laconiek (nl)
• 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)
• Turkish: veciz (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: وجیز (veciz)

• 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/neuter plural laconice)

1. laconic

Declension

Declension of laconic

		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