What is "tersest"

Terse \Terse\, a. [Compar. Terser; superl. Tersest.] [L. tersus, p. p. of tergere to rub or wipe off.]

1. Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth; polished. [Obs.]

   Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have not this power attractive.
   --Sir T. Browne.

2. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. [R. & Obs.] ``Your polite and terse gallants.''
   --Massinger.

3. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to smoothness; as, terse language; a terse style.

   Terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence.
   --Macaulay.

   A poet, too, was there, whose verse Was tender, musical, and terse.
   --Longfellow.

   Syn: Neat; concise; compact.

   Usage: Terse, Concise. Terse was defined by Johnson ``cleanly written'', i. e., free from blemishes, neat or smooth. Its present sense is ``free from excrescences,'' and hence, compact, with smoothness, grace, or elegance, as in the following lones of Whitehead:

   ``In eight terse lines has Ph[ae]drus told (So frugal were the bards of old) A tale of goats; and closed with grace, Plan, moral, all, in that short space.'' [1913 Webster] It differs from concise in not implying, perhaps, quite as much condensation, but chiefly in the additional idea of ``grace or elegance.'' [1913 Webster] -- Terse"ly, adv. -- Terse"ness, n.

a. (en-superlative of: terse)