elliptical

Elliptical can describe an oval shape, but it can also describe speech that leaves things unsaid. English formed it from elliptic and -al. The Greek adjective ἐλλειπτικός (elleiptikós) meant “defective” or “concise,” and came from ἐλλείπω (elleípō), “I leave out, omit.” That old idea of leaving something out survives in elliptical writing or speech, where words or information are omitted; the shape sense describes something resembling an ellipse. English uses of the shape sense are recorded in 1876, while the sense of speech marked by omission appears in an Edmund Wilson quotation from 1940. Earlier examples also show “elliptical” used for concise expression, including a 1903 description by G. K. Chesterton.