Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
gnomic 1[noh-mik, nom-ik] ExamplesWord Origin See more synonyms for gnomic on Thesaurus.com adjective
- of, relating to, or resembling a gnome.
Origin of gnomic 1First recorded in 1805–15; gnome1 + -ic gnomic 2[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 2From the Greek word gnōmikós, dating back to 1805–15. See gnome2, -ic Related formsgno·mi·cal·ly, adverb 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.’
Oscar Wilde
His method is gnomic, laconic, oracular; never persuasive or plausible.
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 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.