laconism

plural laconisms

1. rhetoricuncountableExtreme brevity in expression.

   “Well, where have you been?” he said to her with offhand laconism.

   1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 20, in The Mayor of Casterbridge

   1 more example

   […] Joe Montana is finally calling it quits. A retirement party in San Francisco and a press conference in Kansas City, Missouri, are planned for this week, and his agents are shopping him around to the networks as a broadcaster, even though Montana has a reputation for laconism.

   1995 April 24, Steve Wulf, “The Passing of an Era”, in Time

   Synonyms: conciseness, laconicism, succinctness, brevity, briefness, conciseness, concision, laconicalness

2. countableA very or notably brief expression.

   The hand of PROVIDENCE writes often by abbreviatures, hieroglyphicks or short characters, which, like the Laconism on the wall, are not to be made out but by a hint or key from that SPIRIT which indited them.

   1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 37

   1 more example

   Perhaps the most striking difference between [A Tale of Two Cities] and his other novels may seem to lie in the all but entire absence from it of any humour or attempt at humour; for neither the brutalities of that “honest tradesman” Jerry, nor the laconisms of Miss Pross, can well be called by that name.

   1882, Adolphus William Ward, chapter 6, in Charles Dickens, London: Macmillan, page 154

   Synonyms: brevity, epigram