Some time back, I considered the history of the term laconic. Today we meet its antithesis. It’s the stuff of Twitter: running one’s mouth constantly.
I hate Twitter, incidentally. I hated it long before it became a cesspool for the worst possible ideas imaginable. But I’m loquacious in a different way: I don’t mind running on at the mouth a bit, when needed about a complex topic. Twitter, like social media generally, encourage shallow and small bits of discourse, ones disconnected from deeper meaning, often about vital and thorny subjects.
I know educators use Twitter well, but to me, there’s already a lot of talk, and not enough listening, even in our circles.
“Loquacious” has not changed its meaning much over the years. John Milton used our Latinate term just as we do today, for too much talking.
Shall I be brief about a windy subject?
One old usage, sadly labeled “poetic” and with a last recorded instance of 1888, relates to the chattering of birds.
You know, twittering birds. Tweet tweet tweet.