Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Polysynthetic.
- adjective Of or relating to the stage of child language development characterized by the use of single-word utterances.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having the force of a whole phrase, as a word or gesture; expressive of a sentence, or of a highly complex idea.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Expressing a phrase or sentence in a single word, -- as is the case in the aboriginal languages of America.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective linguistics, of a sentence Consisting of a single word, such as "Go." or "Whatever."
- adjective linguistics Pertaining to the stage of development where a child produces simple one-word utterances.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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According to Merriam-Webster, the first definition of "holophrastic" is: using or consisting of a single word that functions as a phrase or sentence.
Luxist 2010
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The concern to distinguish the literal and the figurative, the primary meaning and the secondary meaning, came later, for purposes of analysis; and outside this concern there was no literal or figurative meaning, just a holophrastic meaning that covered indifferently both of the meanings we distinguish.
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Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.
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Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.
Archive 2005-05-01 2005
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The concern to distinguish the literal and the figurative, the primary meaning and the secondary meaning, came later, for purposes of analysis; and outside this concern there was no literal or figurative meaning, just a holophrastic meaning that covered indifferently both of the meanings we distinguish.
Archive 2005-05-01 2005
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He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.
The Romulan Way Diane Duane 2000
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He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.
Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000
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He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.
Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000
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He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.
The Romulan Way Diane Duane 2000
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He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.
Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000
qms commented on the word holophrastic
If new to environs monastic
You'll find that the silence is drastic.
They frown on the phonic
So monks are laconic,
Conversing in bursts holophrastic.
September 10, 2016