prolix

English

WOTD – 25 June 2009, 25 June 2010

Etymology

From Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus (“stretched out; courteous, favorable”). The verb is derived from the adjective.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹoʊˈlɪks/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊ.lɪks/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊlɪks, -ɪks

Adjective

prolix (comparative more prolix, superlative most prolix)

1. (formal) Tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.

   Synonyms: verbose; see also Thesaurus:verbose

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:concise

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 298:

     "Give me but the luxury of answering to one of his prolix, contradictory speeches, and...I only ask the revenge of a reply."

   • 1843, G. C. Leonardo Sismondi., “Bossi—Necrologia”, in The Quarterly Review‎^[1], volume 72, number 144, page 333:

     People who have blamed [Jean Charles Léonard de] Sismondi as unnecessarily prolix cannot have considered the crowd of details presented by the history of Italy.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Major Major Major Major”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 90:

     From General Peckem's office on the mainland came prolix bulletins each day headed by such cheery homilies as "Procrastination is the Thief of Time and "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness."

   • 1992 September 13, William Grimes, “The Ridiculous Vision of Mark Leyner”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 1 January 2025:

     Traditional narratives he found too prolix and discursive. "There's always 14 pages describing a lawn that you skip over," he says.

   • 2008, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, “We Call Upon The Author”, in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:

     Prolix! Prolix! / Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!

2. (obsolete) Long; having great length.

Antonyms

• taciturn

Derived terms

• overprolix
• prolixity
• prolixly
• prolixness

Related terms

• lax

Translations

tediously lengthy — see also verbose

• Bulgarian: многословен (bg) (mnogosloven), излишно подробен (izlišno podroben)
• Catalan: prolix
• Czech: zdlouhavý (cs)
• Dutch: langdradig (nl)
• Finnish: pitkäpiimäinen (fi)
• French: prolixe (fr), fastidieux (fr), verbeux (fr), phraseur (fr), raseur (fr) (colloquial)
• German: weitschweifig (de)
• Hungarian: terjengős (hu), hosszadalmas (hu)
• Italian: prolisso (it), verboso (it), ridondante (it), iperverboso
• Japanese: 諄々しい (くどくどしい, kudokudoshii) (usually written using only kana), くどい (ja) (kudoi)
• Lithuanian: ištęstas m
• Macedonian: развлечен m (razvlečen), преопширен m (preopširen)
• Māori: autaki
• Polish: przegadany
• Portuguese: prolixo (pt)
• Romanian: prolix (ro)
• Russian: затя́нутый (ru) (zatjánutyj), многосло́вный (ru) (mnogoslóvnyj), простра́нный (ru) (prostránnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: fadalach, màirnealach, liosta
• Slovene: dolgovezen
• Spanish: prolijo (es), fastidioso (es), chicharra (es) (colloquial)
• Swedish: långrandig (sv)
• Tagalog: mahabang talumpati

long — see long

Verb

prolix (third-person singular simple present prolixes, present participle prolixing, simple past and past participle prolixed)

1. (rare) To be tediously lengthy.

Further reading

• “prolix”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “prolix”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “prolix, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin prōlixus (“courteous, favorable”). Compare Spanish prolijo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [pɾuˈliks]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [pɾoˈliks]
• Rhymes: -iks
• Homophone: prolixs

Adjective

prolix (feminine prolixa, masculine plural prolixos, feminine plural prolixes)

1. prolix

Derived terms

• prolixament

Related terms

• prolixitat

Further reading

• “prolix”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “prolix”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “prolix” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “prolix”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin prōlixus

French prolixebor.

Romanian prolix

Borrowed from French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus.

Adjective

prolix m or n (feminine singular prolixă, masculine plural prolicși, feminine/neuter plural prolixe)

1. prolix

Declension

Declension of prolix

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	prolix		prolixă	prolicși	prolixe
	definite	prolixul		prolixa	prolicșii	prolixele
genitive- dative	indefinite	prolix		prolixe	prolicși	prolixe
	definite	prolixului		prolixei	prolicșilor	prolixelor

Related terms

• prolixitate