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I always thought concise was about resolving multiple things at once. Cutting two birds with one slice so to say.
by tovej 5y ago
I always thought concise was about resolving multiple things at once. Cutting two birds with one slice so to say.
- ithkuil 5y ago> (adjective) giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive. Also in italian (and possibly other romance languages) the meaning is "short, to the point", the etymology evokes the "cutting" ("cesoie", scissors), but nothing evoking the "two birds" metaphor.
- tovej 5y agowhat evokes it for me is the con- prefix, which means "together" or "with". Concise should mean something like "together-cut". I did look it up, and the latin dictionaries give "fallen together" or "fallen into pieces", and it also seems to be used for slaughter. "With cuts" or "cut up". Interestingly some etymologies give the original verb as concido (from cado, "fall", not "cut"). So the etymology of concisus (concise) could also be an expression of "squishing together".
- ithkuil 5y agosince you can kill by cutting, it's hard to to disentangle the killing from the mere cutting. An anecdote: in Italy you can often see the "scissors" hand gestures when the interlocutor wants you to get to the point. I don't know how ancient people came up with the word, but the killing metaphor seems a bit of a stretch; perhaps cutting one's tongue would be enough!