terse

terse

/tɜːs/

​using few words and often not seeming polite or friendly

a terse style

The president issued a terse statement denying the charges.

Although he was terse, he didn’t rage at me.

Collocations

noun

Word Origin

early 17th cent.: from Latin tersus ‘wiped, polished’, from the verb tergere. The original sense was ‘polished, trim, spruce’, (relating to language) ‘polished, polite’, hence ‘concise and to the point’ (late 18th cent.).