the word 'terse' entered english in the late 16th century, directly from the latin adjective 'tersus', meaning 'clean, neat, polished'. this latin term is the past participle of 'tergere', which means 'to wipe, to polish, to clean off'. the semantic evolution is a classic example of metaphorical extension: the notion of a polished, clean-cut style of speech or writing, free of superfluous words, led to the modern meaning of concise and pithy, often with a connotation of abruptness. this journey from a physical act of wiping clean to a stylistic quality demonstrates how language abstracts concrete actions into descriptions of manner and form.

the word 'terse' is a simplex word borrowed as a whole from latin. it does not contain separable morphemes in its modern english form.