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 tergērewipe’ (source also of English detergent).
\ \ Cf.DETERGENT

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • terse — terse …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • 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.] [1913 Webster] Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have not this …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • terse — [ tɜrs ] adjective a terse statement or remark is very short and often shows that the person making it is annoyed ╾ terse|ly adverb ╾ terse|ness noun uncount …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • terse´ly — terse «turs», adjective, ters|er, ters|est. brief and to the point (said of writing and speaking, or writers and speakers): »“No” was Father s terse reply when I asked to play after bedtime. SYNONYM(S): See syn. under concise. (Cf. ↑concise …   Useful english dictionary

  • terse — [tə:s US tə:rs] adj [Date: 1600 1700; : Latin; Origin: tersus clean, neat , from tergere to wipe off ] a terse reply, message etc uses very few words and often shows that you are annoyed ▪ Derek s terse reply ended the conversation. >tersely… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • terse — terse; terse·ly; terse·ness; …   English syllables

  • terse — index cohesive (compact), compact (pithy), laconic, pithy, sententious, succinct Burton s Legal Thesauru …   Law dictionary

  • terse — (adj.) 1590s (implied in tersely), clean cut, burnished, neat, from Fr. ters clean, from L. tersus wiped off, clean, neat, from pp. of tergere to rub, polish, wipe. Sense of concise or pithy in style or language is from 1777, which led to a… …   Etymology dictionary

  • terse — *concise, succinct, laconic, summary, pithy, compendious Analogous words: *brief, short: compact, *close: *expressive, sententious, meaningful: *incisive, crisp, clear cut …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • terse — [adj] brief, short abrupt, aphoristic, boiled down*, breviloquent, brusque, clear cut, clipped, close, compact, compendiary, compendious, concise, condensed, crisp, cryptic, curt, cut to the bone*, elliptical, epigrammatic, exact, gnomic, in a… …   New thesaurus

  • terse — ► ADJECTIVE (terser, tersest) ▪ sparing in the use of words; abrupt. DERIVATIVES tersely adverb terseness noun. ORIGIN originally in the sense «polished, trim»: from Latin tersus wiped, polished …   English terms dictionary

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