[‘ Of long duration, lengthy, protracted; overlong, overextended. Now rare in general sense.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈprəʊlɪks/, U.S. /proʊˈlɪks/, ˈproʊˌlɪks
Forms: lME–16 *prolixe*, lME– *prolix*; /Sc./ pre-17 *prolikis*, pre-17 *prolixe*, pre-17 17– *prolix*.
Etymology: < Middle French /prolixe/ (French /prolixe/) (of a discourse, text, etc.) longwinded, lengthy (c/1224 in Old French as /prolipse), (of an illness) of long duration (1480), (of a writer) characterized by longwindedness (1493), physically long (1495) and its etymon classical Latin /prōlixus/ extended, long, lengthy, copious, probably < /prō-* pro- prefix1 + the same Indo-European base as classical Latin /liquēre* to flow, to be liquid (see liquid adj.). Compare Catalan /prolix/ (1490), Spanish /prolixo/ (late 14th cent.), Portuguese /prolixo/ (15th cent.), Italian /prolisso/ (/a/1342).
*1.* Of long duration, lengthy, protracted; overlong, overextended. Now rare in general sense.
c/1425 Lydgate /Troyyes Bk./(Augustus A.iv) i. 3568 (/MED), Þe obseruaunce of swiche religious, Prolix in werkyng & not compendious.
1619 T. Gataker /Of Nature & Use Lots/ 58 There is Lotery vpon Lotery, lotting and voicing in a prolix and intricate manner enterchangeably mixed the one with the other.
1652 E. Benlowes /Theophila/ xiii. xvii. 238 He shuns Prolixer Law-suits; nor does wait At Thoughtful Grandies prouder Gate.
1686 A. Horneck /Crucified Jesus/ xv. 367 This actual preparation is either more prolix, or more compendious. The prolix, or longer actual preparation is necessary.
1726 J. Ayliffe /Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani/ 81 If the Appellant appoints a Term too prolix or none at all, the Judge may then assign a competent Term.
1741 I. Watts /Improvem. Mind/ i. xvi. 237 If the Chain of Consequences be a little prolix.
1744 J. Armstrong /Art of Preserving Health/ iii. 88 While the buried bacchanal Exhales his surfeit in prolixer dreams.
1894 O. Elton in tr. Saxo Grammaticus /Nine Bks. Danish Hist./(1905) I. p. xviii, Infinite and prolix industry, a sharp eye for the text, and continence in emendation..are not his only virtues.
1973 M. Amis /Rachel Papers/ 8 Mother’s was a prolix and generally rather inelegant parturition.
*2.*
*a.* /spec./ Of speech, writing, vocal music, etc.: tediously lengthy; using or containing too many words; long-winded, wordy, verbose.
?/a/1475 (▸?a1425) tr. R. Higden /Polychron./(Harl.) (1874) V. 325 Iustinianus..coartede the lawes of the Romanes, occupyenge allemoste..iijc ml. versus, as is prolixe [L. /prolixa/] dissonaunce within oon volume of xij bookes.
/c/1500 /Melusine/(1895) 214 What shuld I bring forth prolixe or long talkyng?
1598 R. Dallington /View of Fraunce/ sig. X iv, To speake thus particularly of all his seuerall humours and customes, would bee very prolixe.
1615 R. Hamor /True Disc. Present Estate Virginia/ 34 And euen thus I have shaddowed I hope, without the guilt of tedious, or prolix discourses..the..condition..of Virginia.
/a/1651 D. Calderwood /Hist. Kirk Scotl./(1843) II. 331 Prolixe prayers, hindering the preaching of the Word.
1717 M. Prior /Alma/ iii. 511 Should I, my friend, at large repeat..The bead-roll of her vicious tricks; My poem will be too prolix.
1782 J. Byng /Diary/ 23 Aug. in /Torrington Diaries/(1934) I. 71 On the road I make no doubt but that I shall, for lack of company, be very prolix in my narration.
1819 Scott /Legend of Montrose/ viii, in /Tales of my Landlord/ 3rd Ser. IV. 182 He instantly interrupted his own prolix narration of the skirmish which had taken place.
1865 G. Grote /Plato/ I. vi. 237 They are intolerant of all that is prolix, circuitous, not essential to the proof of the thesis in hand.
1910 /Encycl. Brit./ I. 672/2 The general style is prolix, involved and vicious.
1986 /Early Music/ Aug. 458/1 A well-shaped interpretation of the prolix final chorus.
2004 E. S. Shneidman /Autopsy of Suicidal Mind/ ii. 8 This prolix suicide note is as close to a catamnestic report..from Arthur himself as we are able to get.
*b.* Of a person: given to or characterized by tedious lengthiness in speech or writing.
/a/1527 R. Thorne in R. Hakluyt /Divers Voy./(1582) sig. D2v, I shoulde bee too prolixe.
1597 T. Morley /Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke/ 184 If any man shall think me prolix and tedious in this place, I must for that point craue pardon.
1627 J. Speed /Eng. Abridged/ xxxviii. §9, I will forbeare to be prolixe..in the particular memoration of places in a Prouince so spatious.
1685 J. Chamberlayne tr. A. Colmenero de Ledesma /Treat. Chocolate/ in P. S. Dufour /Manner of making Coffee, Tea, & Chocolate/ 108 That I may not seem too prolix, and to trespass on the Readers patience.
1710 G. Berkeley /Treat. Princ. Human Knowl./ §22, I am afraid..I am needlessly prolix in handling this subject.
1758 Johnson /Idler/ 15 Apr. 9 Conscious dulness has little right to be prolix.
1834 F. Marryat /Jacob Faithful/ I. vii. 118 But not to be too prolix, it will suffice to say, that we made many trips during several months.
1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus /Poems/ xcviii. 1 Asks some booby rebuke, some prolix prattler a judgment?
1956 O. Welles /Mr. Arkadin/ ii. i. 98 Sir Joseph, prolix, and ready to preach about everything concerning Onassis and the late Gulbenkian.
1984 B. Breytenbach /Mouroir/ 121 They carp at my being prolix, verbose.
2005 /Times Lit. Suppl./ 22 Apr. 22/2 Sometimes his emotions lead him to be prolix and self-indulgent, or to make the kind of empty gestures we find in ‘Moments When the Light’.
*3.* Long in measurement or extent. Now rare.
a/1500 (▸a1450) tr. /Secreta Secret./(Ashm. 396) (1977) 107 (/MED), Yf the chynne be full longe and prolixe [L. /si..longe atque in prolixum discernatur/], with gilis hys mynde is occupied.
1590 W. Clever /Flower of Phisicke/ 92 The flegmaticke and moyst man hathe a moste prolixe increment in the nayles.
1653 J. Bulwer /Anthropometamorphosis/(rev. ed.) viii. 142 Men that were lately found.., whose Ears are so prolix, that they hang down even unto the ground.
1656 /Disc. Auxiliary Beauty/ 187 [A] fatherly, prolixe, and reverentiall beard.
1664 H. More /Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity/ xviii. 68 Such large and prolix Shadows might Christianity cast.
a/1745 Swift /My Lady’s Lament. in /Wks./(1765) VIII. ii. 181 My fingers, prolix, Are ten crooked sticks.
1785 W. Cowper /Tirocinium/ in /Task/ 361 With wig prolix, down flowing to his waist.
1857 S. Birch /Hist. Anc. Pott./(1858) I. 414 Long prolix beards appear..on some figures, to mark the virile or senile age.
1865 S. Pancoast /Ladies’ Med. Guide/(ed. 6) iii. iii. 471 Bulwer..affirms that there is a mountain in Ethiopia..where the women have prolix beards and whiskers.
2006 /sergesblog.blogspot.com/ 27 Apr. (O.E.D. Archive), An English friend..spent a couple of years as..a schoolmaster in a Pakistani village, wearing native clothes and a beard even more prolix than mine.