Word of the Day

Saturday, August 18, 2001

concinnity

\kuhn-SIN-uh-tee\ , noun;

Internal harmony or fitness in the adaptation of parts to a whole or to each other.

Studied elegance of design or arrangement -- used chiefly of literary style.

An instance of concinnity.

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Quotes:

He has what one character calls "the gifts of concinnity and concision," that deft swipe with a phrase that can be so devastating in children.

-- Elizabeth Ward,

Denis Donoghue is a primary critic of our time, catholic in scope, unique in literary apprehension, crucially gratifying in the clear concinnity of his prose.

-- Ihab Hassan,

Even so, rules are not merely there to be ignored; in fact, they constitute a democratic aristocracy based not on Debrett's Peerage or the Almanach de Gotha but on the user's respect for comprehensibility, consistency, concision and concinnity -- or, simply, elegance.

-- John Simon, "House Rules", New York Times, October 31, 1999

Origin:

Concinnity comes from Latin concinnitas, "elegance; harmony of style," from concinnus, "well put together; pleasing, on account of harmony and proportion."