Vocabulary from A Thousand Acres: Laconic

Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, hosted by bermudaonion.net.  Join me and other bloggers each Wednesday for the opportunity to learn about some new words via our current reads.

In A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley, I came across a great pairing of antonyms.  The passage reads:

 

Harold Clark promoted his own local reputation of garrulous thoughtlessness. While many, even most, farmers I knew were laconic and uncomplaining, Harold talked of himself often, and always as if he were almost but not quite two people…

Now here’s some information from Webster’s:

garrulous \’gar-ə-ləs\  adj from Latin garrire to chatter:  given to prosy, rambling, or tedious loquacity; pointlessly talkative

 laconic \lə-‘kän-ik\ adj from Latin laconicus Spartan, from Greek lakōnikos from the Spartan reputation for terseness of speech:  using or involving the use of a minimum of words; concise to the point of seeming rude

You could call my husband laconic. He tends to answer questions in five words or less, and he often displays a “Why are daring to speak to me?” look on his face.  Especially when he’s tired.  (Love you, Honey!)

Not me though.  My eleventh grade English teacher called me “loquacious” and nick named me “Babs.”  But I certainly hope my talking is never tedious or pointless.   (No need to confirm or deny, thanks.)

Word Nerd Workout

Let’s create an analogy with these words.  An analogy shows correspondence between a set of words and serves as a basis to create another set.   Here’s my example:

Garrulous : laconic :: loquacious : ?

(You could read this: garrulous is to laconic as loquacious is to _____?)

Fill in the blank, or create your own analogy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Julia

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save