holophrastic

adjective

ho·lo·phras·tic ˌhō-lə-ˈfra-stik

ˌhä-

: expressing a complex of ideas in a single word or in a fixed phrase

Word History

Etymology

holo- + -phrastic (as in paraphrastic, periphrastic)

Note: Word apparently coined by the German-American educator and political philosopher Francis Lieber (1798 or 1800-1872) in a letter to Albert Gallatin entitled "On some subjects of comparative Philology, and the importance of the study of Foreign Languages especially of the Classic Tongues," published in the Southern Literary Messenger, vol. 3, no. 3 (March, 1837), pp. 167-68.

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of holophrastic was in 1860

See more words from the same year