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Repartee vs Apothegm - What's the difference?

repartee | apothegm |

As nouns the difference between repartee and apothegm

is that repartee is a swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing while apothegm is a short, witty, instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.

As a verb repartee

is to reply with a.

repartee

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing.
  • * 1919 ,
    • A slight smile broke on his lips. ¶ "You are always prepared to sacrifice your principles for a repartee ," he answered.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick)
    • Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees , you never heard over your mahogany
  • A conversation marked by a series of witty retorts.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

  • To reply with a
  • * {{quote-book, year=1862, author=Various, section=Vol. 2 No 4, title=The Continental Monthly, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=Aubrey speaks of him as 'incomparable at reparteeing , the bull that was bayted, his witt beinge most sparkling, when most set on and provoked.' }}
  • To have a (conversation marked by repartees)
  • * {{quote-book, year=1913, author=Gouverneur Morris, title=The Penalty, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=To see them together, friendly, reparteeing , chummy, would turn your stomach--Barbara so exquisite and high-born, and the man, his eyes full of evil fires, sitting like a great toad on the model's chair. }}

    Anagrams

    * *

    apothegm

    English

    Alternative forms

    * apophthegm

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A short, witty, instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
  • * 1665 , , The English Rogue: De?cribed, in the Life of Merington Latroon, A Witty Extravagant, Being a Compleat Hi?tory of the Mo?t Eminent Cheats of Both Sexes , Henry Marsh, page 355,
    • Every gla?s of wine, or bit almo?t, that I committed to my mouth, ?he u?hered thither with ?ome Apothegm or other: the whole ?eries, indeed, of her di?cour?e, was compo?ed of nothing but rea?on or wit, which made me admire her; which ?he ea?ily under?tood, I perceived by her ?miles, when ?he ob?erved me gaping, as it were, when ?he ?poke, as if I would have eaten up her Words.
  • * 1920 ,
    • "You are too wonderful!" he would say. "How do you find time for everything?"
    She rejoined with the apophthegm that made the rounds of Riseholme next day.
    "My dear, it is just busy people that have time for everything."
  • * 2008 , , ISBN 978-0-441-01575-7, page 114,
    • Which means roughly that business keeps one safe from love—ominous talk when one’s lover is a courtesan. I hoped that it was just another literary conceit I ought to know. (It is, I later learned, an apothegm by .)

    Synonyms

    * See .