reticence, n.
(ˈrɛtɪsəns)
Also 7, 9 -ense.
[a. F. reticence (= Sp. and Pg. reticencia, It. reticenza), or ad. L. reticentia, f. reticēre to keep silence: see -ence.]
Maintenance of silence; avoidance of saying too much or of speaking freely; disposition to say little.
Not in common use until after 1830.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 841 (R.), Many times, I wis, a smile, a reticence or keeping silence, may well express a speech, and make it more emphatical. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Reticence, silence, concealment, councel-keeping, when one holds his peace, and utters not the thing he should tell. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Reticence, a Rhetorical Figure, when something is conceal'd that ought to be declar'd; Concealment, or passing over in Silence. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. x, A man so known for impenetrable reticence as Teufelsdröckh. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. xii. 130 That frankness of hers had not been successful, and she regretted that she had not imposed on herself some little reticence. 1884 J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 8 Divine wisdom betrays itself by reticence about the unseen world. |
| fig. 1873 Stevenson Ess. Trav., Roads (1905) 233 We learn,..through one coquettish reticence after another,..the whole loveliness of the country. 1875 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. 277 The Lac de Gaube,..with a strange attraction for the swimmer in its cold smooth reticence and breathless calm. |
b. Const.
of (the thing kept back). Also
fig.| 1838 Sir W. Hamilton Logic xx. (1866) I. 391 On no principle can it be shown, that our modern logicians are correct in denying or not contemplating the possibility of the reticence of the conclusion [of a syllogism]. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax i, My father and I both glanced round, surprised at her unusual reticence of epithets. 1868 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 363 The same breadth and subtlety of touch, the same noble reticence of colour. |
c. pl. Instances of silence or reserve.
| 1814 W. Taylor in Robberd Mem. (1843) II. 449, I need not dwell on the judicious selection of matter..or on the decorous purity of his very reticences. 1833 Fraser's Mag. VII. 550 This naughty flower-scene..is among his lordship's reticenses. 1878 Morley Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 185 The reticences of men are often only less full of meaning than their most pregnant speech. |
Hence
ˈreticence v., to pass over in silence.
| 1833 Fraser's Mag. VII. 532 Some choice passages..which from other motives he had purposely reticensed. |