prolix

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English

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Etymology

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From Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus (stretched out; courteous, favorable).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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prolix (comparative more prolix, superlative most prolix)

  1. Tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.
    Synonyms: verbose; see also Thesaurus:verbose
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:concise
    • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Romance and Reality. [], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, [], →OCLC, page 298:
      "Give me but the luxury of answering to one of his prolix, contradictory speeches, and...I only ask the revenge of a reply."
    • 1843, G. C. Leonardo Sismondi., “Bossi—Necrologia”, in The Quarterly Review[1], volume 72, number 144, page 333:
      People who have blamed [Jean Charles Léonard de] Sismondi as unnecessarily prolix cannot have considered the crowd of details presented by the history of Italy.
    • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Major Major Major Major”, in Catch-22 [], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 90:
      From General Peckem's office on the mainland came prolix bulletins each day headed by such cheery homilies as "Procrastination is the Thief of Time and "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness."
    • 1992 September 13, William Grimes, “The Ridiculous Vision of Mark Leyner”, in The New York Times[2], →ISSN:
      Traditional narratives he found too prolix and discursive. "There's always 14 pages describing a lawn that you skip over," he says.
    • 2008, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis (lyrics and music), “We Call Upon The Author”, in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:
      Prolix! Prolix! / Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!
  2. (obsolete) Long; having great length.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin prōlixus (courteous, favorable). Compare Spanish prolijo.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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prolix (feminine prolixa, masculine plural prolixos, feminine plural prolixes)

  1. prolix

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus.

Adjective

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prolix m or n (feminine singular prolixă, masculine plural prolicși, feminine and neuter plural prolixe)

  1. prolix

Declension

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