High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A laconic phrase is a very concise or terse statement, named after Laconia (a.k.a. Lacedaemon ), a polis of ancient Greece (and region of modern Greece) surrounding the city of Sparta proper. In common usage, Sparta referred both to Lacedaemon and Sparta. Similarly, a laconism is a figure of speech in which someone uses very few words to express an idea, in keeping with the Spartan reputation for austerity.