telegraphese

English

Etymology

telegraph +‎ -ese

Noun

telegraphese (uncountable)

  1. The terse, abbreviated writing style used in or as used in telegraph messages; speech that resembles this.
    • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 2000, page 575:
      Vythilingam said: "Injection every day. Perhaps all right then." Anstruther had not been long in Malaya. He attributed this wog's clipped telegraphese to the shyness of one who meets socially a racial superior.
    • 2008 January 21, Noam Cohen, “Campaign Reporting in Under 140 Taps”, in New York Times‎:
      Despite the new gadgetry, these journalists are actually rediscovering telegraphese — the clipped (ideally witty) style that flourished because of word limits imposed by an earlier technology, the telegraph.
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