On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world above sea level.
In giving accolade to Hillary’s achievements, the Prime Minister of New Zealand said: "He was a quintessential Kiwi ... from his craggy appearance and laconic style ... to his directness and honesty.” Many New Zealanders are known as a laconic persons, people of few words. Although, laconic can also imply terse remarks, signifying a comment was short and intended to convey annoyance or even anger.
The word laconic has an interesting history. It was first used in the late 1500s to describe statements using a minimum number of words that can seem rude or mysterious. The term laconic derives from Laconia, an ancient country in southern Greece. Many people are more familiar with the name of Laconia’s capital city, Sparta. Spartans were famous for their warriors and their direct short speech. They did not use a lot of excess flowery words in communication.
The Greek word Lakōnikos, meant a native of Laconia, often a Spartan. So, the Romans used laconicus to describe a warrior from the city of Sparta. Then, laconic came into English to describe a type of speech or character of a person, and no longer connected with Sparta nor its country.
Laconic is similar in meaning to concise, terse, succinct, summary, pithy, and compendious. There are subtle differences in these words to emphasize specific nuances for communication.
Concise suggests the removal of all that is superfluous. The witness gave a concise description of the event.
Terse implies pointed conciseness. Because they had little information on the suspect, the police issued only a terse statement to the media.
Succinct denotes the greatest possible compression. She offered her boss a succinct letter of resignation.
Summary suggests the statement of main points with no elaboration or explanation. The article presented a summary listing of the year’s main events.
Pithy implies a few words with richness of meaning or substance. His comedy routine was sharpened by pithy one-liners.
Compendious applies to what is at once full in scope but brief in treatment. They published a compendious dictionary.
On a dark and stormy night, the laconic stranger suddenly appeared in the doorway of the tavern. In this sentence laconic emphasizes the mysterious aspect of a stranger who enters while saying little.
Laconic can be a positive attribute or have a negative connotation. I sometimes wish that my wife used more laconic sentences when relating her experiences of the day or sharing past stories. (Let’s get to the point a little more quickly.) Some of the parishioners in my church may have desired more laconic sermons. (He just goes on and on and on.) If I used a laconic style in these articles, they would probably be one third of their usual length.
As a youngster I recall doing monthly word quizzes and games with my mother published in Readers’ Digest. I still remember working together with her on the section, “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power.”
Word use with an app on smartphones tends to be very laconic. What this has done is made our normal in-person conversations bordering on rude at times. English, as most languages, is so rich in words it is a shame to use such a small vocabulary.
There is a time for laconic speech and a time for using the nuances of wonderful words. It is an art to know the difference. Use word wisdom.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
