prolix
verbEtymology From Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus (“stretched out; courteous, favorable”). The verb is derived from the adjective.
1
Rare To be tediously lengthy.
prolix
adjUS /pɹoʊˈlɪks/ · UK /ˈpɹəʊ.lɪks/
Etymology From Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus (“stretched out; courteous, favorable”). The verb is derived from the adjective.
1
Formal Tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.
- "Give me but the luxury of answering to one of his prolix, contradictory speeches, and...I only ask the revenge of a reply."1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 298:
- 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.1843, G. C. Leonardo Sismondi., “Bossi—Necrologia”, in The Quarterly Review, volume 72, number 144, page 333:
3 more examples
- 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."1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Major Major Major Major”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 90:
- Traditional narratives he found too prolix and discursive. "There's always 14 pages describing a lawn that you skip over," he says.1992 September 13, William Grimes, “The Ridiculous Vision of Mark Leyner”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Prolix! Prolix! / Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!2008, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, “We Call Upon The Author”, in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:
2
Obsolete Long; having great length.
- Antonyms
- taciturn
- Derived terms
- overprolix, prolixity, prolixly, prolixness
- Related terms
- lax