laconic
pronunciation
How to pronounce laconic in British English:
UK [ləˈkɒnɪk]
How to pronounce laconic in American English:
US [ləˈkɑnɪk]
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- Adjective:
- brief and to the point; effectively cut short
Word Origin
- laconic
- laconic: [16] The Greek term for an inhabitant of the ancient region of Laconia, in the southern Peloponnese, and of its capital Sparta, was Lákōn. The Spartans were renowned for not using two words where one would do (there is a story that when Philip of Macedon threatened invasion with ‘If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta to the ground’, the Spartans’ only reply was ‘If’), and so English used the adjective laconic (from Greek Lakōnikós) for ‘sparing of speech’.
- laconic (adj.)
- "concise, abrupt," 1580s, probably via Latin Laconicus, from Greek Lakonikos, from Lakon "person from Lakonia," the district around Sparta in southern Greece in ancient times, whose inhabitants were famously proud of their brevity of speech. When Philip of Macedon threatened them with, "If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta to the ground," the Spartans' reply was, "If." An earlier form was laconical (1570s). Related: Laconically.
Example
- 1. " Start 10 years ago , " is the laconic answer .
- 2. Hastings carries himself with a laconic modesty that contradicts an ambitious and restless mind .
- 3. The laconic general kayani has mostly kept out of domestic politics , but he has left no doubt who is in charge .
- 4. Instead she simply observed gudrun in her most laconic latin manner , waiting like an ocelot for the other to commit herself again .