mindmap root((VERB)) verbose Using more words than are needed; wordy.
🌱The writing style in government publications has often been both dry and verbose—a deadly combination. 🌳Americans brought up on fast-paced TV shows and action films have lost any patience they once had for verbosity.So most American writing is brisk, and American speakers usually don't waste many words. But many of us love our own voices and opinions and don't realize we're being verbose until our listeners start stifling their yawns. And students still try to fill up the pages of their term papers with unneeded verbosity. proverb A brief, often-repeated statement that expresses a general truth or common observation.
🌱"Waste not, want not" used to be a favorite proverb in many households. 🌳Proverbs probably appeared with the dawn of language. Sayings such as "A stitch in time saves nine," or "Pride goeth before a fall," or "Least said, soonest mended," or "To everything there is a season" are easily memorized nuggets of wisdom. But the convenient thing about proverbs is that there's often one for every point of view. For every "Look before you leap" there's a "He who hesitates is lost." "A fool and his money are soon parted" can be countered with "To make money you have to spend money." A cynic once observed, "Proverbs are invaluable treasures to dunces with good memories." verbatim In the exact words; word for word.
🌱It turned out that the writer had lifted long passages verbatim from an earlier, forgotten biography of the statesman. 🌳Verbatim comes directly from Latin into English with the same spelling and meaning. Memorizing famous speeches, poems, or literary passages is a good way to both train the memory and absorb the classic texts of our literature and culture. At one time the ability to recite verbatim the Gettysburg Address, the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, and great speeches from Shakespeare was the mark of a well-educated person. But when that language was quoted by a writer, he or she was always careful to put quotation marks around it and tell readers who the true author was. verbiage An excess of words, often with little content; wordiness.
🌱The agency's report was full of unnecessary verbiage, which someone should have edited out before the report was published. 🌳Government reports are notorious for their unfortunate tendency toward empty verbiage, through part of the reason is simply that officials are anxious to be following all the rules. Legal documents are also generally full of verbiage, partly because lawyers want to be sure that every last possibility has been covered and no loopholes have been left. But writing that contains unneeded verbiage is often trying to disguise its lack of real substance or clarity of thought. And every writer, including government workers and lawyers, should be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to hit the Delete key.