gnomic

[noh-mik, nom-ik]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR gnomic ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of, relating to, or resembling a gnome.

Origin of gnomic

First recorded in 1805–15; gnome¹ + -ic

gnomic

[noh-mik, nom-ik]

adjective

like or containing gnomes or aphorisms.

of, relating to, or noting a writer of aphorisms, especially any of certain Greek poets.

Also gno·mi·cal.

Origin of gnomic

From the Greek word gnōmikós, dating back to 1805–15. See gnome², -ic

Related formsgno·mi·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for gnomic

precise, curt, cryptic, incisive, concise, brusque, laconic, pithy, succinct, elliptical, trenchant, abrupt, clear-cut, close, compact, compendious, condensed, crisp, epigrammatic, exact

Examples from the Web for gnomic

Contemporary Examples of gnomic

He would have looked very well as a priest: the shabby, gnomic variety one sees in small Italian towns.
Iran’s Top Spy Is the Modern-Day Karla, John Le Carré’s Villainous Mastermind
Michael Weiss
July 2, 2014
Dyer uses this kind of gnomic, prophetic, baffling language all the time, and it can be trying and vague.
Geoff Dyer's 'The Missing of the Somme' Reconsidered
Louisa Thomas
November 11, 2011

Historical Examples of gnomic

They often say in their Gnomic aphorisms, ‘Even the Gods cannot alter the past.’
De Profundis
Oscar Wilde
His method is gnomic, laconic, oracular; never persuasive or plausible.
Suspended Judgments
John Cowper Powys
He is a Gnomic Poet; and he is so, because he is emphatically the poet of man.
A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen
William Spalding
The Gnomic poets and the Seven Sages had crystallized morality in apothegms.
Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol II of 2)
John Addington Symonds
The Gnomic poets show how guilt, if unavenged at the moment, brings calamity upon the offspring of the evil-doer.
Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol II of 2)
John Addington Symonds

British Dictionary definitions for gnomic

gnomic

gnomical

adjective

consisting of, containing, or relating to gnomes or aphorisms

of or relating to a writer of such sayings

Derived Formsgnomically, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for gnomic

adj.

"full of instructive sayings," 1815, from French gnomique (18c.) and directly from Late Latin gnomicus "concerned with maxims, didactic," from Greek gnomikos, from gnome "thought, opinion, maxim, intelligence," from root of gignoskein "to come to know" (see gnostic). English gnome meant "short, pithy statement of general truth" (1570s). Gnomical is attested from 1610s.