colloq. or humorous. [f. TELEGRAPH sb. + -ESE.]
1. The concise and elliptical style in which telegrams are worded.
1885. Pall Mall G., 26 Sept., 2/2. We shall gradually give up English in favour of Telegraphese, and Electric Telegraphese is as short and spare as Daily Telegraphese is longwinded and redundant.
1905. Athenæum, 7 Oct., 469/2. We rather relish the leisurely semicolons and sentences of the eighteenth century after … the ‘telegraphese’ of many a modern stylist.
2. An elaborate or inflated style, such as was attributed to leading articles in the (London) Daily Telegraph newspaper.
1874. Fraser’s Mag. (N.S.), XI. April, 426/1. It [the Mission] was discussed in high-polite, in Telegraphese, in all known newspaper dialects.
1885. [see 1].
1889. Universal Rev., Oct., 215. The man who writes for the Telegraph must write Telegraphese.
1892. Leisure Hour, May, 455/2. The elaborate, rounded, allusive style which has gone down to fame as Telegraphese.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 9 Dec., 3/1. Sala was not only the patentee of Telegraphese. He was also the first, and in some ways the best.
