gnomic1
[noh-mik, nom-ik]
- of, relating to, or resembling a gnome.
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Origin of gnomic1
gnomic2
[noh-mik, nom-ik]
- like or containing gnomes or aphorisms.
- of, relating to, or noting a writer of aphorisms, especially any of certain Greek poets.
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Also gno·mi·cal.
Origin of gnomic2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gnomic
Contemporary Examples
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 MastermindMichael Weiss
July 2, 2014
Dyer uses this kind of gnomic, prophetic, baffling language all the time, and it can be trying and vague.
Historical Examples
They often say in their Gnomic aphorisms, ‘Even the Gods cannot alter the past.’
De ProfundisOscar Wilde
His method is gnomic, laconic, oracular; never persuasive or plausible.
Suspended JudgmentsJohn 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 KinsmenWilliam 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
gnomic
gnomical
- consisting of, containing, or relating to gnomes or aphorisms
- of or relating to a writer of such sayings
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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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper