| 词组 | conciseness, concision |
| 释义 | conciseness, concision Conciseness is a 17th-century word still in use. Concision is an even older word, but its original senses are now archaic or obsolete; it began to be used as a synonym of conciseness in the 18th century. Concision was used in some piece written by Henry James and noticed by the Fowler brothers (Fowler 1907) who thought it a bit exotic for conciseness. Fowler 1926 took up the subject again, this time recommending conciseness and calling concision a "literary critics' word"; Sir Ernest Gowers left the remarks in his revision, Fowler 1965. In spite of Fowler's preference for conciseness, concision seems to be the word of choice in reviews. Concision appears in our files with a bit more frequency than conciseness. Some examples of each follow: • Conciseness is generally a strength of this book — Physics Today, September 1984 • ... argues with elegant conciseness —Dennis H. Wrong, Change, April 1972 • The first six volumes set a high standard for conciseness—Times Literary Supp., 31 Oct. 1968 • ... the magnificent conciseness, the neatness —Bon-amy Dobrée, English Literature in the Early Eighteenth Century, 1700-1740, 1959 • Though Seneca is long-winded, he is not diffuse; he is capable of great concision —T. S. Eliot, "Seneca in Elizabethan Translation," in Selected Essays, 1932 • ... the concision and compactness of the metaphor —John Livingston Lowes, Convention and Revolt in Poetry, 1919 • ... forced upon me a concision that my practice as a dramatist had made grateful to me —W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938 • ... the writing of the "Memoirs" is perfect in concision and clearness —Edmund Wilson, New Yorker, 4 Apr. 1953 • ... the introduction and commentary are exemplary in their concision and lucidity —Times Literary Supp., 9 Feb. 1967 • Stendhal is a master of concision —John Russell, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 26 July 1981 Concision is occasionally used of visual images: • The flowers are drawn with delicate concision and utter botanical veracity —New Yorker, 3 Dec. 1966 • ... "open," airy, three-dimensional images of extraordinary delicacy and concision —Hilton Kramer, N.Y. Times, 11 Apr. 1976 Even television can be the subject: • The eye of the television camera craves concision— anecdotes, jokes, statements, rather than musings — Carll Tucker, Saturday Rev., 2 Sept. 1978 |
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