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monosyllabic, adj.

DRAFT REVISION Mar. 2010

Brit. /mn()slabk/, U.S. /mnslæbk/  Forms: see MONO- comb. form and SYLLABIC adj.  [< post-classical Latin monosyllabicus (1267 in R. Bacon) < classical Latin or post-classical Latin monosyllabus, adjective (Pliny, as recorded by a 4th-cent. grammarian; < Hellenistic Greek : see MONOSYLLABON n.) + -icus -IC suffix. Compare medieval Greek or earlier Greek , French monosyllabique (end of the 17th cent.). Compare earlier MONOSYLLABICAL adj., and also DISYLLABIC adj., TRISYLLABIC adj.] 

    1. Of a person: speaking in monosyllables; uttering few or brief words, esp. as indicative of a reluctance to engage in conversation.

1735 in Pope Lit. Corr. (ed. 2) II. p. xxix, The monosyllabic West-Saxon Race. 1861 All Year Round 7 Sept. 558/2 A..good-natured, monosyllabic, cigaret-smoking monster. 1870 B. DISRAELI Lothair (new ed.) viii, Lothair was somewhat monosyllabic and absent. 1892 MRS. H. WARD David Grieve I. 173 Mr. Ancrum..had been cheered a little during his last days at Clough End by the appearance of David, very red and monosyllabic, on his doorstep. 1917 E. WHARTON Summer iii. 37 Mr. Royall, though monosyllabic at home, was not averse, in certain moods, to imparting his views to his fellow-townsmen. 1995 K. O'RIORDAN Involved 184 Every time Kitty answered she was so cold and monosyllabic, Danny took issue with her rudeness.

    2. a. Of a language, esp. one in its supposed early or primitive form: having only words of one syllable.
  In Linguistics formerly used as the distinctive epithet of East Asian languages which were thought to have a vocabulary wholly composed of monosyllables, and thus to constitute a distinct language family.

1766 J. CLELAND Way to Things by Words ii. 82 This language..must also in the simplicity of its origin have been purely monosyllabic. 1790 W. JONES in Asiatic Res. 2 374 It [sc. Chinese] wants those grammatical accents, without which all human tongues would appear monosyllabick. 1815 Q. Rev. 14 97 Of the five classes which we denominated Monosyllabic, Indoeuropean, Tataric, African, and American, the first two only are to be considered as constituted according to correct philological principles. 1822tr. C. Malte-Brun Universal Geogr. I. 570 The stock or family of the languages of Eastern Asia, or of the Monosyllabic languages, differs entirely from that of the Indo-Germanic languages. 1841 I. D'ISRAELI Amenities Lit. I. 21 Their Saxon-English is nearly monosyllabic, and their phraseology curt. 1868 F. MAX MÜLLER Stratif. Lang. 42 The Thibetan is..tonic and monosyllabic. 1875 W. D. WHITNEY Life & Growth of Lang. xii. 239 If we met with monosyllabic tongues in different parts of the earth, we should have no right to infer their connection. 1904 G. A. GRIERSON Ling. Surv. India II. 1 The Mn-Khmr languages are monosyllabic. 1998 A. DALBY Dict. Langs. 670/2 Wa languages are largely monosyllabic, like their Tai and Tibeto-Burman neighbours.

    b. Of a speech, statement, text, etc.: consisting of monosyllables; (in extended use) curt, abrupt.

1774 W. MITFORD Ess. Harmony Lang. 149 Where this is the case a monosyllabic line may be spritely in its motion. 1839 DICKENS Nicholas Nickleby xvi. 146 The same gentleman..again made a monosyllabic demonstration, by growling out ‘Resign.’ 1866 ‘G. ELIOT’ Felix Holt I. 3 Throwing out a monosyllabic hint to his cattle. 1899 T. C. ALLBUTT et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 367 The speech is often monosyllabic, a whispered monotone. 1954 W. LEWIS Self Condemned vii. 80 A period in his Johnsonian undergraduate days when he was addicted to monosyllabic disapproval. 1990 F. STARN Soup of Day I. v. 21 He and Tristan exchanged monosyllabic expressions of good will over their washing.

    3. Of a word or an element of a word: consisting of one syllable.

1766 J. CLELAND Way to Things by Words p. iii, The difficulty was to hit that middle point between these two extremes, at which the monosyllabic constitutives of the Celtic discernibly take the form of language. a1831 Encycl. Metrop. I. 151/1 A short monosyllabic preposition. 1883 H. SWEET in Trans. Philol. Soc. 212 Not only in most unstrest syllabls of polysyllabic words, but also in the unstrest monosyllabic words. 1906 Athenæum 12 May 575/1 Monosyllabic roots. 1948 ‘J. TEY’ Franchise Affair (1949) vi. 65 Fleet Street had its own name for itmonosyllabic and unprintable. 1993 Lang. in Society 22 513 Many monosyllabic words which were pronounced differently in Classical Chinese later became homonymous in speech.

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