What does "laconic" mean?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Your ex. seems slightly off to me, but if I read it in a book (especially by a famous author) I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it.

Probably the previous and current extensions of meaning result from the fact that all meanings are related to the idea of restraint.

Now I have to start searching for contexts inwhich to use "Spartan brevity" in.  (N.b., this syntax is a goak, but typical of what we were discussing in another thread.)

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: What does "laconic" mean?
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>Well, though I'm no longer a twenty-something and modesty prevents me
>from describing myself as "highly-educated," until I read this thread,
>I, too, labored under the misapprhension that "laconic" means
>"emotionless, affectless, dispassionate." I came to this conclusion as
>a consequence of the contexts wherein the word usually appears in
>literature.

I am also getting a little too old to be called "twenty-something". I have
taken "laconic" to mean "given to few words" as long as I can remember.
However, I don't remember ever using the word myself, and had someone asked
me "Doesn't it also mean 'emotionless' sometimes?" I admit that I wouldn't
have known the answer for sure.

Now I've looked in some books, and looky here in MW3 -- as respectable a
source as any, and not unduly reflective of local or momentary fads or
boo-boos AFAIK. Definition (2a) of "laconic": "speaking or writing with
Spartan brevity : CURT, TERSE, UNDEMONSTRATIVE." Definition (2) of
"Spartan": "marked by simplicity, frugality, avoidance of comfort and
luxury, strict self-discipline, severity of manner, brevity in speech,
hardihood in the face of pain or danger" -- not too helpful, I guess.
"Undemonstrative": "restrained or reserved in expression of feeling : not
effusive". Close enough to "not expressing emotion", right?

So maybe the misapprehension is not total. Does something like this seem an
apt usage? <out only a few syllables and a brief wail of anguish.>>

-- Doug Wilson

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