brusque vituperus curt 040502 ... vituperus ~laconic ~~concise + ~~succinct + ~~terse + 040502 ... minnesota_chris every one of those words has different connotations. Same word, different flavor. I don't suppose you could actually use one of these words correctly, though, could you? 040503 ... vituperus Well Chris, the reason I put the little ~s by them was to imply the different connotations. "Curt" has no ~ because its very close to synonymous with "brusque," implying brevity to the point of rudeness; "laconic" gets a ~ because it usually implies a rudeness (but can also suggest mystery); "terse," "succinct," and "concise" denote brevity but don't have the same negative connotations, so they get two ~s and a +. That said, of course no words are exactly synonymous. I know this, and I suppose you do as well (although the idea is evidently novel enough to you that you still consider it insightful). And I can and do use every word that I've typed, thank you. 040503 ... minnesota_chris ok, point taken and point taken. But my point is, what is the point? Are you just showing off? 040503 ... vituperus Was that your point? Yes, I was trying to show off. 040503 ... minnesota_chris well, my asshole works really well, use it every day, quite a marvelous device, but I don't show it to anyone. is feeling terse. But not laconic. 040504 ... vituperus Right. You'd rather show people an *analogy* involving your asshole. Gotcha. 040504 ... Blathistorian I actually spent three minutes trying to decide whether the preceding kerfuffle was or was not an example of brusqueness. My conclusion is that, while at times bearing similarities, it does not serve as an especially telling illustration of the word. That said, I don't suspect the two participants had any intention of filling illustratory roles. 081125 ... minnesota_chris yeah, while I'm usually pretty curt, up there I was downright brusque. I dunno what was eating me. Maybe Vituperus was driving me nuts. 081125 ... minnesota_chris yeah, back then, vituperus was making post after post like a thesaurus: writing a word and its synonyms. I know, blather is blather, but I was growling at him. should really take more chill pills 081125 ... unhinged my freeze mechanism can make me appear this way 200701 what's it to you? who go blather from