Laconic phrase

A laconic phrase or laconism is a concise or terse statement, especially a blunt and elliptical rejoinder.[1][2]

It is named after Laconia, the region of Greece including the city of Sparta, whose inhabitants had a reputation for verbal austerity and were famous for their blunt and often pithy remarks.

Uses

A laconic phrase may be used for efficiency (as in military jargon), for philosophical reasons (especially among thinkers who believe in minimalism, such as Stoics), or to better deflate a pompous individual (a famous example being at the Battle of Thermopylae).

In humour

The Spartans were especially famous for their dry, understated wit, which is now known as "laconic humor."[note 1] This can be contrasted with the "Attic salt" or "Attic wit," the refined, poignant, delicate humour of Sparta's chief rival Athens.

History

Spartans focused less than other Greeks on the development of education, arts, and literature.[5] Some view this as having contributed to the characteristically blunt Laconian speech. However, Socrates, in Plato's dialogue Protagoras, appears to reject the idea that Spartans' economy with words was simply a consequence of poor literary education: "... they conceal their wisdom, and pretend to be blockheads, so that they may seem to be superior only because of their prowess in battle ... This is how you may know that I am speaking the truth and that the Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking: if you talk to any ordinary Spartan, he seems to be stupid, but eventually, like an expert marksman, he shoots in some brief remark that proves you to be only a child".[6][note 2] Socrates was known to have admired Spartan laws,[7] as did many other Athenians,[8] but modern scholars have doubted the seriousness of his attribution of a secret love of philosophy to Spartans.[9] Still, two Spartans Myson of Chenae and Chilon of Sparta – were traditionally counted among the Seven Sages of Greece to whom many famous sayings were ascribed.

In general, however, Spartans were expected to be men of few words, to hold rhetoric in disdain, and to stick to the point. Loquacity was seen as a sign of frivolity, and unbecoming of sensible, down-to-earth Spartan peers. A Spartan youth was reportedly liable to have his thumb bitten as punishment for too verbose a response to a teacher's question.[10]

Examples

Spartan

Leonidas statue at Sparta with the words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ inscribed on the base

Other historical examples

See also

Notes

  1. Australia is often cited as a modern stronghold of such humor.[3][4]
  2. An alternative translation by A. Beresford and R. Allen is as follows: "...they claim not to have any interest in [philosophy] and put on this big show of being morons...because...they want people to think that their superiority rests on fighting battles and being manly... You can tell that what I say is true, and that Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and argument, by this: if one associates with the most inferior Spartan, one at first finds him somewhat inferior in speech; but then at some chance point in the discussion he throws in a remark worthy of noticing, brief and terse, like a skilled marksman, so that the person he's talking to appears no better than a child."
  3. Before sailing across the Aegean to Asia Minor, Agesilaus had planned to offer sacrifice at Aulis, but was prevented from doing so by the intervention of Thebes, something he never forgave. His withdrawal from Asia led to all Asiatic Greeks falling under Persian dominion. The Persian Empire was afforded a 60-year respite from Hellenic invasion, until it was finally overwhelmed by Alexander.
  4. By repeatedly campaigning against Thebes, Agesilaus had violated one of the maxims (rhetras) of Lycurgus, namely that Sparta should not make war frequently with the same opponents, lest by doing so it should school them in military arts. This transgression led to the downfall of Sparta after its defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra, and ultimately to the downfall of Greece, after Philip II of Macedon obtained military training while a hostage at Thebes and then defeated Thebes and its Greek coalition in the Battle of Chaeronea.
  5. This began early. When Dirac was a child, his authoritarian father, a teacher of French, enforced a rule that Dirac speak to him only in French, as a device to encourage him to learn the language. But since young Dirac had difficulty expressing himself in French, the result was he spoke very little.
  6. When the German officer had to ask, "Is the reply negative or affirmative?", it was explained to him as being equivalent to "Go to hell."[55]

References

  1. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms, 1984, s.v. 'concise' p. 172
  2. Henry Percy Smith, Synonyms Discriminated (1904) p. 541
  3. Willbanks, R. (1991). Australian Voices: Writers and Their Work. University of Texas Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-292-78558-8. OCLC 23220737.
  4. Bell, S.; Bell, K.; Byrne, R. (2013). "Australian Humour: What Makes Aussies Laugh?". Australian Tales. Australian-Information-Stories.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  5. Plato, Hippias Major 285b-d.
  6. Protagoras 342b, d-e, from the translation given at the end of the section on Lycurgus in e-classics.com.
  7. Plato, Crito 52e.
  8. Plato, Republic 544c.
  9. p. 255, A.E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work, Meridian Books, 6th ed., 1949; p. 83, C.C.W. Taylor, Plato: Protagoras, Oxford University Press, 2002; p. 151, A. Beresford, Plato: Protagoras and Meno, Penguin Books 2005.
  10. Paul Cartledge (2003). Spartan Reflections. University of California Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-520-23124-5. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Plutarch: Life of Lycurgus 1 2 3
  12. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica (Sayings of Spartans), 217a. This work may or may not be by Plutarch himself, but is included among the Moralia, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the collection of his most famous works, the Parallel Lives.
  13. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225a.
  14. Plutarch, Lacaenarum Apophthegmata (Sayings of Spartan Women), 240e. This work may or may not be by Plutarch himself, but is included among the Moralia, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the collection of his most famous works, the Parallel Lives.
  15. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225c.
  16. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225c.8-9.
  17. Herodotus The Histories, Book Seven, section 226.
  18. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225d
  19. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 230f
  20. Plutarch, Lacaenarum Apophthegmata, 240e
  21. Herodotus The Histories, Book 3, section 46.
  22. Xenophon, Hellenica 1.1.23
  23. Brownson, C. L. (1918). "Xenophon in Seven Volumes". Hellenica. Heinemann. Archived from the original on 2014-09-20. Retrieved 2014-09-20.
  24. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 210a
  25. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 213c
  26. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Agesilaus", 15.6.123
  27. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 215a
  28. Plutarch, "De garrulitate, 17" 1 2 or 3
  29. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 220f
  30. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 221a
  31. Plutarch: Life of Demetrius
  32. Plutarch, Lacaenarum Apophthegmata, 241f.16.
  33. "Sparta: Famous quotes about Spartan life". The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization. PBS. November 1999. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  34. Attributed to no one in particular in Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, to Agesilaus II in Plutarch's Life of Agesilaus, and to Pleistarchus in the Apophthegmata Laconica of the Moralia.
  35. I Kings 20:10-11
  36. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae Book IV, 138d; Book XII, 518e; trans. quoted in Dalby, A. Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece. London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-15657-2, p.126.
  37. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Phocion", 16.6.
  38. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Pyrrhus", 21.9.
  39. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Cicero", 22.4.
  40. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Caesar", 32.8.
  41. Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars.
  42. The Russian Primary Chronicle
  43. Boller, Jr., Paul F.; George, John (1989). They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505541-1.
  44. Eugene Ehrlich, Nil Desperandum: A Dictionary of Latin Tags and Useful Phrases [Original title: Amo, Amas, Amat and More], BCA 1992 [1985], p. 175.
  45. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harrymount/100045634/david-camerons-ancestor-and-the-greatest-latin-joke-ever/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  46. William S. Walsh (1892). Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities. Philadelphia: J.B. Lipincott Co. p. 600.
  47. Writing, Not (2007-01-18). "The Shortest Complete Sentence in the English Language". Humanities 360. Helium Publishing. Archived from the original on 2014-06-13. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  48. Neiberg, Michael (2003). "Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War". Brassey's. ISBN 1-57488-672-X.
  49. Nicholas, Jeremy. "Wit and Wisdom". www.godowsky.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  50. Coolidge, Calvin (2001). Hannaford, Peter, ed. The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century. Bennington, Vermont: Images From the Past. p. 169. ISBN 1-884592-33-3.
  51. Dirac, Gisela. "Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984)". DIRAC Family Research. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  52. Peierls R (1960). "Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, 1900-1958". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Royal Society (Great Britain)) 5: 174–192. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1960.0014.
  53. Blair, Clay (1996). Hitler’s U-Boat War Vol I. ISBN 0-304-35260-8.
  54. Hearn, Chester (2005). Carriers in Combat: The Air War At Sea. Stackpole Books. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-8117-3398-4.
  55. S.L. A. Marshall, Bastogne: The First Eight Days, Chapter 14, detailing and sourcing the incident.
  56. Russ, Martin (1999). Breakout – The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea, 1950. Penguin Books. p. 230. ISBN 0-14-029259-4.
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