pauciloquy
(n.) [pɔˈsɪləkwi] — the use of few words when speaking; economy of speech (OED)
In 21st century mainstream American culture—and probably for at least the two or three centuries immediately preceding this one—, being thought of as someone who “use[s] (a) few words when speaking” is to be thought someone virtuous, for no one can doubt that to be called “a man of few words” is for most of us a high compliment. Nonetheless, we might also agree that it could be worth considering in a bit of detail in what sense pauciloquy might be a virtue and why this virtue’s name is a bit ambiguous and why its use can be problematic.
There is, most obviously, the fact that an actual speech of a few words might be termed a pauciloquy, as, for example, had Hamlet, instead of launching into his famous rumination on the advisability of suicide, said instead, “To be or not to be? Hmmm. Tough choice/But for the nonce I’ll carry on awhile,” would any of us be the poorer for not having heard and ever after had available for quotation his extended consideration of the ways in which sleep resembles death or his comparison of dying with a journey to another, unknown not-so-far-off land? The question, so quaintly posed, would likely still have stuck in our minds; we’d still be able to say, “To be or not to be” with just as much sententiousness and assumed profundity, and lost nothing, since as it is, so few of us would presume to quote much further anyway, having likely neglected to commit much more of Hamlet’s soliloquy to memory. And would then our estimation of the young Danish prince have in any important particular been the less? Indeed, in that his pauciloquy (“an instance of very briefly talking to or conversing with oneself, or of uttering one’s thoughts aloud without addressing any person”) would provide ample evidence of his pauciloquy (in the sense defined above), we might indeed have thought the more, albeit differently, of him.
Then there’s the difficulty presented by the syntax of the definition itself. Is “the use of few words when speaking” the same as “the use of a few words when speaking”? If not, or even if so, which few words qualify as genuine pauciloquy? Would “fuck you,” “kiss my ass,” “that’s bullshit,” or “Yo, whassup?” qualify? And need this use, either of “few words” or of “a few words,” be habitual before true pauciloquy is suspected? That is, wouldn’t everyone be pauciloquous—a derivative which the dictionary doesn’t record but which it should—much of the time and so wouldn’t the word begin to lose its significance? What if someone suffered from a fear of speaking in public or was just an exceptionally shy and “private person” and so disinclined to ever say much? Could pauciloquy then be considered a symptom of a sort of worrisome disease or condition?
All of these questions and more might occur to anyone considering applying this word and might therefore “puzzle the will” nearly as much as Hamlet said his questions puzzled his. As a remedy which would preserve a patch of semantic territory wherein this word might freely and meaningfully roam, I would recommend reserving pauciloquy to describe speeches and speakers who, like our most revered president,1 address large audiences on ceremonial or other public occasions and, following long-winded introductions or contributions from others considered more traditionally “eloquent,” deliver pithy characterizations of the central issues at hand—if indeed there really are any—without troubling to embellish their thoughts with restatement, ornament or irrelevant digressions and thereby save everyone a considerable amount of time they might instead spend on more congenial amusements.
That is, be “Classical” instead of “Baroque,” though to characterize as “baroque” those who, like our current presidential candidates, even now continue to speak in public and find it impossible to stick to the point seems to bestow on them way too much cultural value and prestige. Yet I remind you that we use these terms introduced to identify periods in art history only metaphorically, and nothing real is therefore granted or intended by such use.
Whose self-deprecating comment about his own speech—”The world will little note nor long remember what we say here …”—as it turned out was uncharacteristically wide of the mark.