Hot Words for the S.A.T.Lesson 1: Cat Got Your Tongue?

Words Relating to Using Few Words or Being Quiet

Where did that expression come from, anyway?• The saying stems from a custom in the Middle East

hundreds of years ago, when it was common to punish a liar by cutting out their tongue and giving it to the ruler's pet cats as part of their daily food.

• It means you are having trouble thinking of a way to speak or answer a question posed to you, so it seems like you cannot talk.

brevity concise laconic pithy quiescent reticent succinct taciturn terse Lesson 1: Cat Got Your Tongue?

Brevity (BREV-ih-tee) n.

“briefness or conciseness in speech or writing.”

For the sake of brevity, choose your words with care.

Limited space in the newsletter makes brevity essential.

When time is short, brevity is a virtue.

Concise (cun-SISE) adj.

“using few words in speaking or writing.”

A concise explanation is preferable to a long-winded one.

Leslie’s essay is pretty wordy; she should be more concise.

For a concise summary of the book, read the book jacket.

Laconic (luh-CAHN-ik) adj.

“using few words in speech”

Because the president’s laconic reply lacked specificity, it raised more questions than it answered.

It was just too hot to give more than a laconic response to the question.

Pithy (PIH-thee) adj.

“brief and full of meaning and substance; concise”

For the yearbook, Jenny searched through Bartlett’s for a pithy quotation about courage.

Jonathan’s sonnet ended with a pithy rhyming couplet.

Quiescent (kwy-EH-sunt) adj.

“quiet; still; inactive”

Mount St. Helens has been quiescent since its last eruption in 1986.

On long summer weekends, the city loses its bustle and is strangely quiescent.

Reticent (RET-ih-sunt) adj.

“not talking much; reserved”

Usually reticent, Ms. Worthy surprised us all with a long story at lunch.

I thought the old man was reticent, but the reason he would not talk was because he had no teeth!

succinct (suk-SINKT) adj.

“clearly and briefly stated; concise”

Mr. Phillips asked us to write a succinct summary of our term papers.

Let me state this as succinctly as I can; “No late papers.”

taciturn (TAS-ih-turn) adj.

“silent; sparing of words; close-mouthed”

Next to me on the bus sat a taciturn girl who said nothing during the four-hour ride.

Throughout the party, Larry was moody and taciturn. No one heard a peep from him.

terse (TURS) adj.

“using only words that are needed to make the point; very concise, sometimes to the point of rudeness”

Mia wanted details about Joyce’s new boyfriend, but got only a terse description.

Terse speakers make dull lecturers.

MEMORY TIPS• Use these mnemonics (memory devices) to boost your vocabulary. Make

up your own memory clues for words in this lesson that challenge you. Add these tips—and your own—to your notebook.

• Brevity Connect this word to a related word you most likely already know: abbreviate. Note how they both share the letter cluster brev!

• Pithy Think of just the pit (central part) of the topic and nothing more. Remember that pithy expressions are substantial and to the point.

• Quiescent Did you notice the word quiet is within quiescent? Use this to see the definition within the word: still; inactive; quiet. In your notebook underline or highlight q-u-i-e-t in quiescent. Another SAT word, acquiesce, is related to quiescent. Acquiesce means “to peaceably agree or quietly give in to.”

• Taciturn in Latin, tacitus means silent. Tacit means implied or expressed without words, as in a “tacit agreement.”

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