[‘ As an exhortation: ‘be quiet’, ‘be of few words’, ‘enough said’. Cf. palabra n.']
Forms: 16 *pacus palabros*, 16 *paucas pallabris*, 16 *paucos palabros*, 16 18 *pocas palabras*, 18 *paucas palabras*.
Etymology: < Spanish /pocas palabras/, lit. ‘few words’ (first half of the 13th cent.) < /pocas/, feminine plural of poco (end of the 11th cent.; < classical Latin /paucus/ few (see pauci- comb. form)) + the plural of /palabra/ palabra n.
Use of the phrase as an interjection is not recorded in dictionaries of Spanish. The phrase does occur as part of a proverbial expression whose standard form from the mid 15th cent. onwards is Al buen entendedor, pocas palabras ‘To the man of understanding, few words’.
The forms in pauc- may reflect influence of or confusion with classical Latin /paucus/ few (see pauci- comb. form).
/Obs./ (arch. in later use).
As an exhortation: ‘be quiet’, ‘be of few words’, ‘enough said’. Cf. palabra n.
Chiefly in Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline drama.
1592 T. Kyd /Spanish Trag./ iii. sig. Iv, What new deuice haue they deuised tro? Pocas Palabras, milde as the Lambe.
1603 T. Dekker /1603: Wonderfull Yeare/ sig. E4, With this learned Oration the Cobler was tutord: layd his finger on his mouth, and cried paucos palabros: he had sealed her pardon, and therefore bid her not feare.
1611 T. Middleton & T. Dekker /Roaring Girle/ sig. L2, /Pacus palabros/, I will coniure for you, farewell.
a/1616 Shakespeare /Taming of Shrew/ (1623) Induct. i. 5 /Host. A paire of stockes you rogue. Beg. Y’are a baggage, the Slies are no rogues..therefore Paucas pallabris, let the world slide: Sessa.
1638 T. Heywood /Wise-woman of Hogsdon/ iii, /Wisewo./ That’s Luce, take her, and keepe your promise. Boyst. Pocas palabras.
1835 R. M. Bird /Hawks of Hawk-hollow/ II. ix. 87 But where’s that bottle of brown Sherry I clapped into Tiqueraque’s pocket? Paucas palabras! I will have mercy upon thee.
1855 C. Kingsley /Westward Ho!/ (1903) v. 108 ‘You have shown yourself..my dear and beloved master on earth, not second even to my admiral Sir Francis Drake.’ ‘Or the queen, I hope..but pocas palabras.’