Breviloquent

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Dr. Goodword
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Breviloquent

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:44 pm

• breviloquent •

Pronunciation: bre-vi-lê-kwint • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Laconic, terse, concise, to the point without superfluous verbiage

Notes: Here is one of the many words hiding in the dark recesses of the English lexicon. It was heard recently in an episode of the British TV comedy "Doc Martin", a favorite of mine. So far as I'm concerned, if Doc Martin uses it, we all should. The noun, like those from all adjectives ending on -ant/-ent, is breviloquence, and the adverb, breviloquently. We have a surprising number of related words, including grandiloquent "bombastic", vaniloquent "speaking foolishly" and, of course, eloquent.

In Play: Breviloquent may be used instead of concise if you need a few extra syllables, or if you need to be either discreet or arcane: "Henry is a very breviloquent poet; he doesn't waste words." However, if you wish to practice breviloquence yourself, speak bluntly to the point: "Nada Farthingsworth is a very breviloquent speaker because she has so little to say."

Word History: Today's Good, if all but abandoned, Word is a Latin compound made up of brevis "short, low, little, shallow" + loquen(t)s, the present participle of loqui "to speak". Brevis, believe it or not, comes from the Proto-Indo-European word mregh-u- "short". It turned up in Greek as brakhys "short", in Old Church Slavonic bruzeja "shallow places, shoals", and Gothic gamaurgjan "to shorten". The Latin word bracchium "arm, branch" originally referred only to the upper arm, the shorter part of the arm. The word pretzel goes back to the presumed (unattested) Medieval Latin diminutive of bracchium, brachitellum "little arm". Even though this type of biscuit had been enjoyed by the Romans, a French monk began tying them in the knotted shape of today's pretzel. He wanted to symbolize arms folded in prayer, hence the name derived from brachitellum. This explains why the German word can be Brezel. (Lew Jury's recommendation of today's Good Word was most breviloquent. I thank him for the suggestion and the breviloquence.)
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damoge
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Re: Breviloquent

Postby damoge » Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:26 pm

in regard to the "old Slavonic" meaning shallow places, I understand that the town of Bruges (Francophone name) in Belgium was named by the folks from the North, and that the name meant something like "shallow marshy place". I had thought it was
from some form of Brugge (Flemish name) and had some relationship with a Germanic word for bridge. Since it is in the Flemish part of Belgium, I was surprised to find that the origin is closer in pronunciation to the French form of the name.

Funny, they can getcha when it seems such a direct and reasonable line of reasoning.
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Breviloquent

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:12 pm

Reminds me of the area of Washington DC near
Georgetown, that is called "Foggy Bottom".
The subway stop there goes by the same name.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

damoge
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Re: Breviloquent

Postby damoge » Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:40 pm

I think the State Department is there. Never knew which came first, but it seems a fitting pairing.
Everything works out, one way or another

LukeJavan8
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Re: Breviloquent

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:54 pm

:lol:
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