prolix

English

WOTD – 25 June 2009

From Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus (“courteous, favorable”).

prolix (comparative more prolix, superlative most prolix)

Tediously lengthy; verbose; dwelling on trivial details.
- 1843, G. C. Leonardo Sismondi., “Bossi—Necrologia”, in The Quarterly Review‎, volume 72, number 144, page 333:
  People who have blamed [Jean Charles Léonard de] Sismondi as unnecessarily prolix cannot have considered the crowd of details presented by the history of Italy.
- 2007, Nick Cave, We Call Upon The Author:
  Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!
(obsolete) Long; having great length.

tediously lengthy

Catalan: prolix
Czech: zdlouhavý (cs)
Dutch: langdradig (nl)
Finnish: pitkäpiimäinen (fi)
French: prolixe (fr) m or f, fastidieux (fr), verbeux (fr), phraseur (fr), raseur (fr) (colloquial)
German: weitschweifig (de)
Hungarian: terjengős (hu), hosszadalmas (hu)
Italian: prolisso (it), verboso (it), ridondante (it), iperverboso
Japanese: (usually written using only kana) 諄々しい (くどくどしい, kudokudoshii), くどい (ja) (kudoi)

tending to use large or obscure words, which few understand

Macedonian: преречит m (prérečit)
Russian: ну́дный (ru) (núdnyj), занудный (ru) (zanudnyj), многословный (ru) (mnogoslovnyj), (somewhat, about a person) многоречивый (ru) (mnogorečivyj)
Spanish: pedante (es), sabihondo (es), sabidillo, prolijo (es)
Swedish: omständlig (sv)

From Latin prōlixus (“courteous, favorable”).

prolix (feminine prolixa, masculine plural prolixos, feminine plural prolixes)

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