laconism

Noun

laconism (countable and uncountable, plural laconisms)

1. (rhetoric, uncountable) Extreme 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
   • […] 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, concision, laconicalness, laconicity, terseness

2. (countable) A 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
   • 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...1882, Adolphus William Ward, chapter 6, in Charles Dickens, London: Macmillan, page 154

   Synonyms:

   brevity, epigram