terse
pronunciation
How to pronounce terse in British English:
UK [tɜ:s]
How to pronounce terse in American English:
US [tɜrs]
-
- Adjective:
- brief and to the point; effectively cut short
Word Origin
- terse
- terse: [17] Terse originally meant ‘polished, smooth’ (‘This man … so laboured upon it that he left it smooth and terse’, Helkiah Crooke, Description of the Body of Man 1615). By the 18th century, however, the associated notion of ‘neatness’ had led on to ‘neatly concise’. The word’s present-day negative connotations of ‘brusqueness’ seem to be a comparatively recent development. It was borrowed from tersus, the past participle of Latin tergēre ‘wipe’ (source also of English detergent).=> detergent
- terse (adj.)
- 1590s (implied in tersely), "clean-cut, burnished, neat," from French ters "clean," and directly from Latin tersus "wiped off, clean, neat," from past participle of tergere "to rub, polish, wipe." Sense of "concise or pithy in style or language" is from 1777, which led to a general sense of "neatly concise." The pejorative meaning "brusque" is a fairly recent development. Related: Terseness.
Example
- 1. But their terse verdict is designed to pre-empt , rather than encourage , debate .
- 2. The hiring manager sent her a terse note with some data attached .
- 3. The hiring manager sent her a terse note with some data attached . She analyzed the data and followed up with a phone call requesting another meeting .
- 4. In a terse statement , gazprom said : " gas negotiations would be continued . "
- 5. In contrast , rolls-royce has issued two terse written statements to say it was conducting checks and starting to understand the problem .