Truncations : Truncating People

trun·kate

verb (action)
[trun•kate•ed, trun•kate•ing, trun•kates]
1. To shorten by or as if by cutting off.
2. To shorten (a number) by dropping one or more digits after the decimal point.

adjective (description)
[trun•kate•ed, trun•kate•ing]
1. Having been shortened or cut off abruptly.

truncator noun (person, place or thing)
[trun·kay·tor]
1. Someone or something that truncates.

IN OTHER WORDS
cut off, cut short, crop, trim, clip, dock, prune, curtail, pare, lop, abbreviate, shorten, abridge, castrate, reduce, decrease, diminish, downsize, lessen, minify, curtail, syncopate, foreshorten, contract, condense, capsulize, encapsulate, digest, concentrate, bowdlerize, expurgate

See also précis

OPPOSITE/ANTONYM
lengthen


Collins Essential Thesaurus 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2005, 2006

Truncating People Truncating People

His name is Alex.

Alex is a poet. No one knows it.

Most people call him Al. (The first truncation)

I met him one morning at the counter of Elsie's Diner.

Looking toward him and the woman he had been talking with, I declared, "I just love this place!"

The young man, dressed in a red tee-shirt, a red cap upon his head,

looked directly at me and he said . . . . "I love this place too!"

As if to say, "I love this place so much, . . . " he continued,

"I wish I was the person in the picture on the cover of the menu."

Immediately I exclaimed, "Alex! "This young chap Alex is a poet!"

The woman sitting next to Alex, one of the local old-timers, retorted flippantly.

"He's narcissistic!"

Thus, I've proved my point. I've made my case.

Alex is a poet, and noone knows it!



Alternative Title: Truncated People Poets

Locate the second truncation

Elsies on Main Street, Goshen, 2009