The history of
succinct might not be short, but it's a cinch to remember.
Succinct traces to Latin
succinctus ("tightly wrapped, concise"), which comes from the verb
cingere ("to gird"), the word that gave us
cincture and
cinch. In its earliest uses
succinct meant "confined" or "girded up," and, as such, it was
often used in reference to garments encircled by a band. Eventually,
succinct
was extended to the realm of insects, where it meant "supported by a
band of silk around the middle" (as in "the succinct pupa of a
butterfly"). Later, the word was applied to writings. A "succinct" piece
of writing is "compressed" or "compact" and uses as few words as
possible.
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