Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise. See Synonyms at silent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to Laconia or its inhabitants; Lacedæmonian or Spartan.
- Expressing much in few words, after the manner of the ancient Laconians; sententious; pithy; short; brief: as, a laconic phrase.
- Characteristic of the Laconians; inexorable; stern; severe.
- Synonyms Condensed, Succinct, etc. See concise.
- n. Conciseness of language; laconicism.
- n. A concise, pithy expression; something expressed in a concise, pithy manner; a laconism: chiefly used in the plural: as, to talk in laconics.
- n. In ancient prosody, an anapestic tetrameter catalectic with a spondee instead of the penultimate anapest . So called as a variety of the tetrameter used in the Laconian or Spartan embateria.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Expressing much in few words, after the manner of the Laconians or Spartans; brief and pithy; concise; brusque; epigrammatic. In this sense
laconic is the usual form. - adj. Laconian; characteristic of, or like, the Spartans; hence, stern or severe; cruel; unflinching.
- n. obsolete Laconism.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. brief and to the point; effectively cut short
Etymologies
- From Latin Lacōnicus ("Spartan"), from Ancient Greek Λακωνικός (Lakōnikos, "Laconian"). Laconia was the region inhabited and ruled by the Spartans, who were known for their brevity in speech. (Wiktionary)
- Latin Lacōnicus, Spartan, from Greek Lakōnikos, from Lakōn, a Spartan (from the reputation of the Spartans for brevity of speech). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He brings a new meaning to the word laconic and his choice of words is as accurate as his spicing.”
“Bush, on the other hand, was characterized as a laconic, likable fella who you'd want to have a beer with at a backyard cook-out.”
“This style of speaking, where much was said in few words, was so usual in the whole country of Laconia, that it is still known as the laconic style.”
“So, it seems that we get the word 'laconic' from the Spartans, or Laconians, of ancient Greece.”
“I must have some kind of laconic contempt of pleasure.”
“Plus, he wouldn't have to look up "laconic" in the dictionary.”
Harold Pollack: Now It Must Be Told: Barack Obama's Worst-Kept Secret of the Campaign
“The screen writers did their homework in preserving many famous sayings attributed to the Spartans, who were noted in antiquity for their "laconic" style of speaking.”
“At its best, "Cop Diary" recalled the old New Yorker - not the famously twee New Yorker of the Shawn era, glorious as that could be, but an older old New Yorker, a kind of laconic blarney with roots deep in Joseph Mitchell.”
“Tanaka Gin was a slender, dark-faced man with the kind of laconic grace one often found in Japan's cinema detec - tives or samurai heroes.”
Second Skin
“The Spartans were dignified, austere, and of few words, "laconic" in speech.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘laconic’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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GRE
GRE Vocabs
alacrity, celerity, haste, penitent, prosaic, veracity, paucity, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious and 13 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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Garbiage
word trash
parapluie, brobdingnagian, plié, segue, laconic, pastoral, phthisis, belly, synecdoche, apotheosis, sepulchral, mollification and 40 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 222 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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My GRE Vocab
moniker, sobriquet, prerogative, aberration, aberrant, nuance, notorious, infamous, content, refer, allude, renown and 109 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
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Prep my Lang
Collection of my wordnik word search
equivocal, anomaly, proliferate, assimilate, obscure, aberration, parse, circumnavigate, circumvent, decipher, prose, impasse and 94 more...
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Words I Want To Master
Words I know... but can never seem to remember while speaking or writing!
unfettered, nebulous, elude, vapid, precipitous, abscond, venerate, voracious, replete, laconic, denigrating, unctuous and 23 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for laconic.
lweber5@scf.edu Dictionary.com, He had a reputation for being laconic.
Nov 5, 2010
bilby What exactly is a skater boy? Sep 5, 2009
apgarian i always think of a high school skater boy who acts like he doesn't care by hardly nodding in response to things Sep 5, 2009
seanahan heh Apr 4, 2009
wookinpanub "a response so curt as to be almost rude"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/laconic Apr 3, 2009
qroqqa True. Aug 16, 2008
milosrdenstvi Laconic tends to me more about spare speech, and spartan more about spare living.... Aug 16, 2008
personinthebox Ha ha! I remember that episode. "Angel" actually expanded my vocabulary a good bit. (Although I'm not sure if that's a good thing.)
I use it all the time and people look at me and say "Wha?" I just laugh. Feb 20, 2008
elfflame ANGEL: Hey guys. (He looks up) Oz.
OZ: Hey.
ANGEL: Nice surprise.
OZ: Thanks.
ANGEL: Staying long?
OZ: Few days.
DOYLE: Are they always like this?
OZ: No, we're usually laconic.
Think Joss likes that word or something? :D Dec 18, 2007
seanahan Similar to spartan, for obvious reasons. Jan 14, 2007
pixistix "She's terse. I can be terse. Once in flight school, I was laconic." Jan 13, 2007