telegraphese

English

Etymology

telegraph +‎ -ese

Noun

telegraphese (uncountable)

1. The terse, abbreviated writing style used in or as used in telegraph messages; speech that resembles this.
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 2000, page 575:

     Vythilingam said: "Injection every day. Perhaps all right then." Anstruther had not been long in Malaya. He attributed this wog's clipped telegraphese to the shyness of one who meets socially a racial superior.

   • 2008 January 21, Noam Cohen, “Campaign Reporting in Under 140 Taps”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Despite the new gadgetry, these journalists are actually rediscovering telegraphese — the clipped (ideally witty) style that flourished because of word limits imposed by an earlier technology, the telegraph.