Did you
know?

prolix
adjective

- using too many words and therefore boring or difficult to read or listen to

- unduly prolonged or drawn out : too long

-  marked by or using an excess of words

The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

“Prolix” derives from the Latin prolixus, which is composed of pro- “forward” and laxus “stretched out, loose”.

The literal Latin meaning of prolixus is therefore "stretched out forwards" or "extended in length".

Figuratively, it was already used in Latin with the meaning "wordy, verbose".

This meaning carried over into 13th century Old French as prolixe and then into English as "prolix" by the 1520s. The word entered German as a loan word from Latin or French.

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ORATORIAL EXCELLENCE?

Mr Ananta Ram holds the world record for the longest speech marathon at 90 hours and two minutes, in Kathmandu, Nepal — the “speech-a-thon” was held from 27th to 31st August (2018 Guinness Book of Records).

How many words are in a 90-hour long speech? At a normal speaking rate of 130 words per minute (wpm), Mr Ram's speech would have contained 702,260 words.

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SYNONYMS

abstruse, bombastic, circuitous, circumlocutory, convoluted, copious, diffusive, endless, expansive, far from succinct, full of hot air, gabby, garrulous, gassy, grandiloquent, incessant, in full swing, interminable, lengthy, lingering, logorrheic, long-drawn (-out), long-winded, loquacious, maundering, meandering, multiloquent, nebulous, never-ending, nonstop, overlong, padded, palaverous, periphrastic, pleonastic, PROLIX, prolonged, protracted, rambling, repetitious, repetitive, sesquipedalian, spun/stretched/strung out, talkative, tedious, tedium, turgid, unbroken, unceasing, unending, uninterrupted, unremitting, unsuccinct, verbose, voluble, wordy

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“PROLIX explanations usually leave listeners impatient and confused.”

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