There's no concise way to turn concise into a noun

jennwiththesea@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 61 points –

You can speak concisely, or prefer concise writing, but not quite with concision. I prefer conciseness? Conciquity? Concisement? Why is there no noun for this word??

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Concision is a word, but most people use the term brevity.

Concision is a regular and unexceptional word, but I think brevity has a slightly different connotation: “concision” implies that you’ve carefully phrased things to convey the most information in the fewest words, while “brevity” can imply that you’ve just left stuff out.

El Conciserino, if you're not into that whole 'brevity' thing, man.

Concision seems like it should be a word for that which is made concise rather than the brevity itself. An incision is the cut made by incising.

Incision can also be the practice of incising, but we don't need that word very much.

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Concision is the right word, if speaking with a highly educated audience; if speaking with a less educated audience, perhaps “succinctness” or “efficient clarity” would be better understood, even if not conveying all of the connotations of concision.