lapidary
adjEtymology
The noun is derived from Middle English lapidari, lapidarie (“person who cuts, polishes, or engraves precious stones; expert in precious stones; treatise on precious stones”) [and other forms], from Old French lapidaire (“gemsmith, lapidary”) (modern French lapidaire), or from its etymon Latin lapidārius (“(adjective) of stones, stony; (noun) stonecutter”), from lapidis (the genitive singular of lapis (“stone; (poetic) jewel, precious stone”), possibly from Pre-Greek or Proto-Indo-European *lep- (“to peel”)) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives). Noun senses 3.2 (“jewellery”) and 3.3 (“treatise on precious stones”) are derived from Latin lapidāria or lapidārium, a noun use of the neuter plural or genitive plural respectively of lapidāris (“of stone”, adjective), from lapidis (the genitive singular of lapis; see above) + -āris (suffix forming adjectives). The stone-referent adjective is either: * a learned borrowing from Latin lapidārius (adjective); or * derived from the noun. Adjective sense 6 (“succint”) is by metaphor: the speaker or writer has cut and polished their locution, as it were.
7 senses
- 1Of or pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art…
- 2Of or pertaining to monumental stones, and particularly…
- 3engraved on stone.
- 4Pertaining to a way of speaking which is circumlocutional…
- 5Of a piece of writing or a writing style: characteristic…
- 6Of or pertaining to stones in general.
- 7Succinct, laconic.
Of or pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art of cutting or otherwise working them.
Of or pertaining to monumental stones, and particularly to the art of inscribing them.
Relating to an inscription engraved on stone.
- The vvriter of an epitaph ſhould not be conſidered as ſaying nothing but vvhat is ſtrictly true. Allovvance muſt be made for ſome degree of exaggerated praiſe. In lapidary inſcriptions a man is not upon oath.1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “[1775]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 514:
- He's dead—and upper earth with him has done: / He's buried; save the undertaker's bill, / Or lapidary scrawl, the world is gone / For him, […]1822 October 15, Quevedo Redivivus [pseudonym; Lord Byron], “The Vision of Judgment”, in The Liberal. Verse and Prose from the South, 2nd edition, volume I, number I, London: […] John Hunt, […], published 1823, →OCLC, stanza XII, page 7:
› Senses relating to speech or writing.
Pertaining to a way of speaking which is circumlocutional, is excessively precise, and is multifaceted in the construction of propositions.
- My chances, slender at best, rested with (the barrister Emmet Bourke), and I was sorry to find myself developing a thin, sharp dislike for the man. He had too great a fondness for lapidary formulation.1988, Thomas Flanagan, novel: The Tenants of Time chapter 11
Of a piece of writing or a writing style: characteristic of or suitable for an inscription; embodying the precision and refinement of inscriptions on monuments; concise and stately.
- His grand principle is, that lapidary inscriptions, of what sort soever, should be Historical rather than Lyrical.1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Getting Under Way”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 91:
- They were the encouragers of a numismatic and lapidary erudition, elegant in itself, and throwing for ever its little sparks of light on the still ocean of the past, but not very favourable to comprehensive observation, and tending to bestow on an unprofitable pedantry the honours of real learning.1837–1839, Henry Hallam, “History of Physical and Miscellaneous Literature from 1500 to 1600”, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, volume II, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, section VII (General State of Literature), paragraph 64, page 503:
1 more example
- A man of the new age, he [René Descartes] would not accept received ideas; the scientist must make his mind a tabula rasa. The sole truth was that supplied by mathematics or by such lapidary propositions as "What's done cannot be undone," which was irrefutably correct.2000, Karen Armstrong, “Christians: Brave New World (1492–1870)”, in The Battle for God (A Ballantine Book), New York, N.Y.: The Random House Publishing Group, published February 2001, →ISBN, part 1 (The Old World and the New), page 71:
- Yet such is the temper of this world, that, if a grave philosopher, by shaking his fist, and other acts of bravado, should happen to provoke a company of mischievous boys to reply with a shower of stones, people in general suffer their resentment to settle upon the philosopher for his wanton provocation, rather than on the boys for that lapidary style of retort in which their wrath has been trained to express itself.1831 June, Thomas De Quincey, “Whiggism in Its Relations to Literature”, in Sketches: Critical and Biographic (De Quincey’s Works; VI), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 164:
Uncommon, Of speech or writing Succinct, laconic.