the.com/terseness
Saying the thing without performing the saying of it.
means The quality of expressing something in few words, with no padding, no throat-clearing, no decorative extras.
from From Latin tersus, 'wiped clean, polished' — the past participle of tergere, 'to rub or wipe off.' So terse language is, etymologically, language that's been wiped free of excess, rubbed smooth until nothing loose is left on it. English borrowed the word in the 1600s still carrying that sense of polish before it settled into meaning 'brief' — the glossy neatness came first, the brevity followed.
- etymology
- from Latin tersus, meaning wiped clean
- not rudeness
- brevity with respect, not contempt
- editing rule
- last word cut is usually the weakest
- irony
- hard to define tersely