Words for the Way We Talk

Lecture 15

T

he baseball player Yogi Berra was known for his humorous
sayings, including “I never said most of the things I said.” At one
time or another, probably all of us, like Yogi, would love to take
back something we’ve said. This lecture and the next focus on the theme
of speaking. We may speak to praise someone, to plead a case, to lament a
sorrow, or to denounce a wrong. English has powerful vocabulary words to
describe each of these types of speech, and we will explore many of them in
these lectures. This lecture focuses on negative speech, while the next one
looks at positive speech and words relating to nonsense speech, including
jibber-jabber, hogwash, and baloney.

Laconic (adjective)

Using few words, terse, brief, succinct, taciturn, concise.

z The word laconic brings to mind the characters played by Clint

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Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Eastwood’s

gunslinger said little, preferring to let his six-shooter do most of the

talking.

z The English word laconic comes from Laconia, a region in ancient

Greece whose capital was Sparta. In contrast to their rivals, the

Athenians, who prided themselves on being great orators, the

Spartans prided themselves on the exact opposite, the brevity

of their speech. At one point in history, King Philip of Macedon

threatened the Spartans with takeover, saying, “If I enter Laconia,

I will raze Sparta to the ground.” The Spartans’ laconic reply was

“If ....”