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holophrastic
Apr. 22nd, 2015 07:55 amholophrastic (hoh-luh-FRAS-tik) - adj., (ling.) using a single word to express a complex idea.
This can be because the utterance is in a polysynthetic language where a single word can be a grammatically complete sentence, because it's an interjection that conveys a lot of context (like, "whatever"), or because it's uttered by a toddler who is still using only single words to express, well, everything (like "out" for "I want to go outside").* Coined around 1860 from Greek roots from holo-, whole/entire + Greek phrastikos, expressive, from phrazein to express.
---L.
* Not an imaginary example.
This can be because the utterance is in a polysynthetic language where a single word can be a grammatically complete sentence, because it's an interjection that conveys a lot of context (like, "whatever"), or because it's uttered by a toddler who is still using only single words to express, well, everything (like "out" for "I want to go outside").* Coined around 1860 from Greek roots from holo-, whole/entire + Greek phrastikos, expressive, from phrazein to express.
---L.
* Not an imaginary example.
