holophrastic
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adjective Of or relating to the stage of child language development characterized by the use of single-word utterances.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- adjective Consisting of a single word, such as "Go." or "Whatever."
Examples
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He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.
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Philology also leads us back to that state when the animate and the inanimate were confounded, for the holophrastic roots into which words are finally resolved show us that all inanimate things were represented in language as actors.
Note
The word 'holophrastic' comes from the Greek 'holo-' (whole) and 'phrastikos' (expressive).
