terse

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See also:tersé

English

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WOTD – 16 May 2019

Etymology

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FromLatintersus(“clean, cleansed, rubbed or wiped off; neat, spruce; terse”),perfectpassiveparticipleoftergō,tergeō(“to clean, cleanse, rub, wipe, wipe off”),[1]fromProto-Indo-European*terh₁-(“to rub; to turn”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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terse(comparativeterser,superlativetersest)

  1. (by extension)Ofspeechorstyle:brief,concise,to the point.
    Synonyms:concise,succinct;see alsoThesaurus:concise
    Antonyms:prolix,verbose,wordy;see alsoThesaurus:verbose
    • 1777,[George Riley],The Asses Ears, a Fable. Addressed to the Author of The Goat's Beard [William Whitehead],London: Printed for G. Riley,[…],→OCLC;quoted in “Art. VIII.Asses Ears:A Fable. Addressed to the Author ofThe Goat’s Beard.4to. 6d. Riley. 1777.[book review]”,inThe Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged,volume LVI, London: Printed forR[alph] Griffiths;and sold by T[homas]Becket,[…],March 1777,→OCLC,page194:
      In eightterselines hasPhædrustold / (So frugal were the Bards of old) / A Tale of Goats; and clos'd with grace / Plan, Moral, all, in that ſhort space.
    • 1832September,[John Wilson], “Noctes Ambrosianae.No. LXII.”, inBlackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine,volume XXXII, number CXCVIII, Edinburgh:William Blackwood;London:T[homas]Cadell,[…],→OCLC,page409:
      Your last series contains some of the neatest,tersest,and most unpretendingly original criticism, I have lately met with.
    • 1902,G. W. Parker, “Things and Other Things: Letters to Living Authors—IX. Sir[Arthur] Conan Doyle”,in Donald Macleod, editor,Good Words,London: Isbister and Company Limited[…],→OCLC,page817,column 1:
      The book contains some happily done portrait touches ofNapoleon,[...] and this and other aphoristical sentences scattered throughout this volume, [...] form asterseand trenchant a character-sketch of the Emperor as may be found almost anywhere.
    • 1946,Clayton Knight,The Quest of the Golden Condor,New York, N.Y.:Alfred A. Knopf,→OCLC,page94:
      Many protested that they had nothing to do with the fighting. At a word from the General the soldiers ripped off the men's shirts and examined the front of their shoulders. If they found bruises that might have been made from the butt of a gun when it had been fired—theterseorder was, "Shoot him!" And many of the young men of Trujillo had disappeared.
    • 1977,John Barth,“The Literature of Exhaustion”, inMalcolm Bradbury,editor,The Novel Today: Contemporary Writers on Modern Fiction,Manchester:Manchester University Pressby arrangement withFontana Books;Totowa, N.J.:Rowman and Littlefield,→ISBN,page73:
      [...][Samuel] Becketthas become virtually mute, musewise, having progressed from marvellously constructed English sentences throughterserandterserFrench ones to the unsyntactical, unpunctuated prose ofComment C'estand 'ultimately' to wordless mimes.
    • 1979August 23,John Richard Harrison,Speaker of the House,Francis Duncan O’Flynn,“[Questions for Oral Answer]Leased Cars—Exemptions”, inParliamentary Debates (Hansard): First Session, Thirty-ninth Parliament(House of Representatives), volume425,Wellington: P. D. Hasselberg, government printer, published1980,→OCLC,page2480:
      Mr SPEAKER:If the honourable member could beterse./Mr O'Flynn:I shall be veryterse.It may be my fault, Mr Speaker, but I doubt if you have quite appreciated the point.
    • 2012June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, inThe Guardian‎[1],London, archived fromthe originalon10 March 2016:
      Having attempted to identify a role for the society and its magazine, Quest, "for the next 40 years", the society chairman, Rhea Williams, decided it was time to close. She announced the group's demise in atersemessage to members following the annual meeting, which just 22 people attended.
  2. (by extension)Ofmanneror speech:abruptlyorbrusquelyshort;curt.
    Synonyms:abrupt,brusque,(dialectal)mardy,short-spoken
    • 2008,Julia James,The Italian's Rags-to-riches Wife(Bedded by… Blackmail; Harlequin Presents;2716), Toronto, Ont., New York, N.Y.:Harlequin,→ISBN,page107:
      'Laura!' The voice halting her wasterse.Brusque. She turned. [...] 'Before I go,' he said, and his voice wasterse,tighter than ever. 'I want to ensure you understand something.'
    • 2018,Zara Cox,Close to The Edge(Mills & Boon Dare), London:Mills & Boon,→ISBN:
      My voice wasterserthan I intended, but what the hell. The night was turning out to be interesting in some ways and extremely frustrating in others.
  3. (obsolete)Burnished,polished;fine,smooth;neat,spruce.[from early 17th c.]

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^Compare“terse,adj.”,inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1911;“terse”,inLexico,Dictionary;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Finnish

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Etymology

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Humorous form ofterve,possibly influenced byperse.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key):/ˈterseˣ/,[ˈt̪e̞rs̠e̞(ʔ)]
  • Rhymes:-erse
  • Syllabification(key):ter‧se

Interjection

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terse(humorous)

  1. hi,hello

Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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terse

  1. inflection ofterser:
    1. first/third-personsingularpresentindicative/subjunctive
    2. second-personsingularimperative

Anagrams

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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terse

  1. third-personsingularpast historic oftergere

Etymology 2

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Participle

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tersefpl

  1. femininepluralofterso

Adjective

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tersefpl

  1. femininepluralofterso

Anagrams

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Latin

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Participle

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terse

  1. vocativemasculinesingularoftersus

Venetian

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Adjective

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tersefpl

  1. femininepluralofterso
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