gnomic

comparative more gnomic · superlative most gnomic

1. Of, or relating to gnomes (sententious sayings).

   His birth-place was Colophon, an Ionian city of Asia-Minor; a city long famous as the seat of elegiac and gnomic poetry, and ranking the poet Minmermus amongst its celebrated men.

   1845, G.H. Lewes, A Biographical History of Philosophy, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., page 72

   1 more example

   Old English culture was threaded through with riddles, cryptograms, gnomic verses, charms and riddling modes of speech such as litotes, just as Modern English culture is (if you will forgive me) riddled with jokes and catch-phrases, crosswords and quizzes, irony and sarcasm.

   2013, Adam Roberts, The Riddles of The Hobbit, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 17

2. Mysterious and often incomprehensible yet seemingly wise.

   He always makes gnomic utterances.

   3 more examples

   The gnomic belief that the world is conditioned by love is no idle apothegm.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page i

   In his part gnomic, part mechanic’s style, Mr. Pirsig’s narrator declares that the real world is a seamless continuum of the material and metaphysical.

   2017 April 24, Paul Vitello, “Robert M. Pirsig, Author of ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,’ Dies at 88”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   […] on other parts of the whiteboard, she'd written more gnomic prompts (“Food area,” “Objects,” “Substances”).

   2024 March 18, Andrew Marantz, “О.К., Doomer”, in The New Yorker, page 42

3. grammarExpressing general truths or aphorisms.

   gnomic aspect