gnomic

adjective

gno·​mic ˈnō-mik 

1

: characterized by aphorism

gnomic utterances

2

: given to the composition of gnomic writing

a gnomic poet

Did you know?

A gnome is an aphorism—that is, an observation or sentiment reduced to the form of a saying. Gnomes are sometimes couched in metaphorical or figurative language, they are often quite clever, and they are always concise. We borrowed the word gnome in the 16th century from the Greeks, who based their gnome on the verb gignōskein, meaning "to know." (The other gnome—referring to the dwarf of folklore—comes from New Latin and is unrelated to the aphoristic gnome.) We began using gnomic, the adjective form of gnome, in the late 18th century. It describes a style of writing, or sometimes speech, characterized by pithy phrases, which are often terse to the point of mysteriousness.

Examples of gnomic in a Sentence

He made gnomic utterances concerning death.

Recent Examples on the Web

Although this terse and gnomic message was hardly the stuff of congratulations, Biden père—as Vice-President, and as America’s anti-corruption point man in Kyiv—might have altered the course of recent U.S. history simply by telling his son no. —Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2023

Then came Reed the freelance auteur, churning out spotty solo albums and delivering gnomic anti-interviews to the press. —Jeremy Lybarger, The New Republic, 17 Oct. 2023

The pages of No More are composed of gnomic iterations, fragments of thought or expostulation, and dialogue with her devoted partner Yann Andréa, who compiled No More in the penultimate year of her life. —Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Dec. 2022

Schrader is lucky that cinema-illiterate Millennials have no memory of Peter Sellers’s gnomic act as Chauncey Gardiner in Being There. —Armond White, National Review, 24 May 2023

His conducting style could be equally gnomic. —Justin Davidson, Vulture, 17 Mar. 2021

The effect is at once childlike and gnomic, persuasive in Margaret Mitsutani’s crisp, consistent translation from the Japanese. —Natasha Wimmer, The New York Review of Books, 16 Feb. 2023

This was classic Shorter—gnomic, gnostic, mischievous, wise. —David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2023

The idea of an archaic architecture appealed to architect Louis I. Kahn, a mystic with a penchant for gnomic aphorism and musing on phenomenology. —Dallas News, 5 Oct. 2022

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek gnōmikós "dealing in maxims, didactic," from gnṓmē "maxim" + -ikos -ic entry 1 — more at gnome entry 1

First Known Use

1784, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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