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tersenessmore about terseness

terseness


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Terse  \Terse\,  a.  [Compar.  {Terser};  superl.  {Tersest}.]  [L. 
  tersus,  p.  p.  of  tergere  to  rub  or  wipe  off.] 
  1.  Appearing  as  if  rubbed  or  wiped  off  rubbed;  smooth; 
  polished.  [Obs.] 
 
  Many  stones,  .  .  .  although  terse  and  smooth,  have 
  not  this  power  attractive.  --Sir  T. 
  Browne. 
 
  2.  Refined;  accomplished;  --  said  of  persons.  [R.  &  Obs.] 
  ``Your  polite  and  terse  gallants.''  --Massinger. 
 
  3.  Elegantly  concise;  free  of  superfluous  words  polished  to 
  smoothness;  as  terse  language;  a  terse  style. 
 
  Terse,  luminous,  and  dignified  eloquence. 
  --Macaulay. 
 
  A  poet,  too  was  there  whose  verse  Was  tender, 
  musical,  and  terse.  --Longfellow. 
 
  Syn:  Neat;  concise;  compact. 
 
  Usage:  {Terse},  {Concise}.  Terse  was  defined  by  Johnson 
  ``cleanly  written'',  i.  e.,  free  from  blemishes,  neat 
  or  smooth.  Its  present  sense  is  ``free  from 
  excrescences,''  and  hence  compact,  with  smoothness, 
  grace,  or  elegance,  as  in  the  following  lones  of 
  Whitehead: 
 
  ``In  eight  terse  lines  has  Ph[ae]drus  told  (So 
  frugal  were  the  bards  of  old)  A  tale  of  goats; 
  and  closed  with  grace,  Plan  moral,  all  in  that 
  short  space.''  It  differs  from  concise  in  not 
  implying,  perhaps,  quite  as  much  condensation,  but 
  chiefly  in  the  additional  idea  of  ``grace  or 
  elegance.''  --  {Terse"ly},  adv  --  {Terse"ness},  n. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  terseness 
  n  :  a  neatly  short  and  concise  expressive  style  [ant:  {verboseness}] 




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