Dictionary

antiverbal en · ADJ

Etymology

From anti- + verbal.

Meanings

1. Opposing or avoiding the use of speech or words.
   • Othello, Horatio, and Brutus strike me as notable exemplars of laconicism, but in Hotspur's case Shakespeare creates an antiverbal bias that is not so much philosophical as it is bound up in gender stereotype. 1989, Ronald L. Dotterer, Shakespeare: Text, Subtext, and Context, page 206:
   • Though in very different ways, Wolfe, Capote, Mailer, and Didion each define their subjects as somehow beyond words — antiverbal or nonverbal, threatening or sublime, overpowering and intense or private and intuitive […] 1987, Wayne (Chris) Anderson, Style as Argument: Contemporary American Nonfiction (page 5)

Forms

Relateds

averbal

Translations (1)

pt antiverbal (opposing or avoiding the use of speech or words)