lengthy

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adjective

1. Having great physical length: elongate, elongated, extended, long¹, prolonged. See long/short.
2. Extending tediously beyond a standard duration: dragging, drawn-out, long¹, long-drawn-out, overlong, prolonged, protracted. See excite/bore/interest, long/short.

adj

Definition: extended
Antonyms: abbreviated, brief, curtailed, short, shortened

Origin: 1689

Was it because we Americans were in a hurry? We not only invented lengthy, but used it to complain about the length of actions and writings. As early as 1689 in a Massachusetts document we find, "I very much fear a dreadfull, lengthy, wasting Indian war."

In his diary for January of 1759, young John Adams used lengthy to complain about his own writing. He had written a sermon addressed to himself: "Which, dear Youth, will you prefer? a Life of Effeminacy, Indolence and obscurity, or a Life of Industry, Temperance, and Honour?" After several hundred such words, Adams ended, "(I grow too minute and lengthy.)" Ben Franklin, also, as well as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton, made good use of lengthy. The British criticized it in the eighteenth century but picked it up themselves in the nineteenth.

The first collection of Americanisms, written by John Pickering in 1816, remarks that we used the word for "writings or discourses. Thus we say, a lengthy pamphlet, a lengthy sermon, &c." Nowadays it needs no lengthy discussion to acknowledge the continuing usefulness of the word.

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IN BRIEF: Long or too long.

The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditations on the past. — Andre Maurois (1885-1967)

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See words rhyming with "lengthy."

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - længere, vidtløftig, langtrukken, omstændelig

Nederlands (Dutch)
langdurig, gerekt, breedvoerig, grondig

Français (French)
adj. - long, longtemps

Deutsch (German)
adj. - überlang, langatmig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - μακρός, μακρύς, σχοινοτενής, εκτενής, μακροσκελής, πολύωρος, εκτεταμένος

Italiano (Italian)
prolungato, particolareggiato

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - comprido, longo, maçante (fig.), cansativo (fig.)

Русский (Russian)
длительный, долговязый

Español (Spanish)
adj. - largo, extenso, prolongado, larguísimo, demasiado largo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - lång, långvarig, utförlig, vidlyftig, omständlig, utdragen, långdragen, tråkig

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
长的, 罗唆的, 冗长的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 長的, 囉唆的, 冗長的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 매우 긴 , 장황한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 長い, 長たらしい

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) مطول جدا, طويل أو فارع الطول‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ארוך, ארוך ביותר, מייגע, מפורט מדי (נאום, נואם, סיגנון כתיבה)‬

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