This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
faience
laconic
newgate
timbuktu
campanile

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(luh-KON-ik)

MEANING:

adjective: Sparing with words: concise or terse.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin Laconicus, from Greek Lakonikos, from Lakon, Laconian, a resident of Laconia, an ancient country in southern Greece (capital: Sparta). From the reputation of the Laconians for terseness. Earliest documented use: 1601.

NOTES:

Two other toponyms are coined after the names of towns in Laconia: helot and spartan, which is coined after Sparta, the capital of Laconia.

USAGE:

“Edwina, Williams’s mother, was ... as loquacious as her husband was laconic.”
Making Tenn Out of Tom; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 10, 2014.

See more usage examples of laconic in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: