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trenchant

effectively articulate (speech)

TRANSLATION

trenchant = treffend [Sprache]; messerscharf, scharf [Kritik, Witz]; bissig; schneidend [Satire, Spott]; beißend; energisch; treffsicher; prägnant; pointiert

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

“A Former Chinese Ambassador's TRENCHANT Comments on Ukraine War ... Career diplomat Gao Yusheng spoke openly about how disastrous the war has been for Russia, but his comments have since been quietly deleted.”

The Diplomat (12.05.2022)

“A TRENCHANT Trickster — In the precarious world of early 17th-century Germany, Tyll Ulenspiegel learns life is a tightrope.”

Bárbara Mujica -  Washington Independent Review of Books (15th September 2020)

Did you
know?

trenchant
adjective

- (of something said or written) forcefully and effectively expressed, and often in few words

- keen, sharp, vigorously effective and articulate

- severe, expressing strong criticism or forceful opinions

American Dictionary / Merriam-Webster / The Cambridge Dictionary


WORD ORIGIN

The word "trenchant" derives from the Latin word truncare, which means "to cut off" or "to maim". The Old French word trenchant came from the Latin root and meant "sharp" or "cutting."

Over time, the meaning of "trenchant" evolved to describe something that is incisive or effective, particularly in a critical or analytical way. Today, the word can be used to describe someone or something that is keenly perceptive, piercingly sharp, or vigorously effective.


THE TRENCHANT WIT OF OSCAR WILDE

- "I am not young enough to know everything."

- "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

- "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

- "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."

- "We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities."

- "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."

- "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

- "The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself."

- "In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."


SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“With all the fake praise we read these days, I prefer to take more notice of TRENCHANT criticism — and all the more so if it’s witty.”


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Paul

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