plain speakingn.
/ˌpleɪn ˈspiːkɪŋ/, U.S. /ˌpleɪn ˈspikɪŋ/ Directness of speech, candour, frankness; clear or simple language or speech.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > plainness > [noun]
outspeakingc1450
plainness1465
simplicity?a1475
homeliness1576
parrhesia1577
planiloquy1658
plain speaking?c1663
nakedness1711
incomplexity1778
outspokennessa1786
plain-spokenness1840
gracility1900
?c1663 B. Whitelocke Diary (1990) 143 Dr Turner..was much addicted to drollery..& plain speaking.
1702 C. Brent Ess. Nature Guilt & Lying i. 16 They [sc. figurative expressions] are so far from being a lying abuse of Speech, that plain Speaking would not answer all the ends of it without them.
1744 E. F. Haywood Fortunat Foundlings xii. 160 She was a downright English-woman, understood nothing beyond plain speaking, and could no ways solve the riddle he proposed.
1824 W. Scott Redgauntlet II. xi. 224 If this is not plain speaking, there is no such place as downright Dunstable in being!
1849 E. A. Poe in Southern Lit. Messenger July 416/1 As for American letters, plain-speaking about them is..needed.
1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Aug. 12/1 A prince of plain speaking and disaffectation.
1914 L. Woolf Let. Feb. (1990) 199 Of these 36 I am prepared to alter or omit 28..all in which..plain speaking can be miscalled coarseness.
1958 Listener 17 July 81/2 People who pride themselves on plain-speaking call this [sc. a barbecue] a ‘cook-out’.
1997 Sight & Sound Sept. 50/1 He quickly antagonises her family and courtiers by his abrupt manner and plain speaking, but begins to coax the Queen out of her cocoon of widowhood.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?c1663