monosyllabism
(mɒnəʊˈsɪləbɪz(ə)m)
[Formed as monosyllabe + -ism. Cf. F. monosyllabisme.]
Addiction to the use of monosyllables; the quality of being monosyllabic.
| 1804 Mitford Inquiry 414 In the spirited and easy flow of that line thus, its monosyllabism is apt to escape the ear's notice. 1824 New Monthly Mag. XII. 198 The rounded and sonorous Italian enunciation does not admit of being despatched in the snip-snap articulation compatible with the monosyllabism of our own language. 1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 774/2 Which..brought back so considerable a part of the vocabulary to monosyllabism. |
b. spec. in Philology. (See monosyllabic 2 b.)
| 1846 Worcester (cites Ec. Rev.). 1860 Farrar Orig. Lang. 183 It should be observed that triliteralism is not necessarily incompatible with monosyllabism. 1896 A. H. Keane Ethnol. 208 Monosyllabism is thus shown to be, not the first but the last stage in the evolution of human speech. |