Verbosus

Verbosus is a neologistic term used in linguistics and stylistics to describe texts or languages with a high density and elaboration of verb phrases. The word derives from Latin verbum meaning “word” and the suffix -osus meaning “full of.” In descriptive usage, verbosus denotes both morphosyntactic richness of verbs in a language and the stylistic emphasis on actions and processes in a text.

In corpus studies, a verbosus index may be computed as the proportion of verb tokens relative to total tokens, sometimes adjusted for periphrastic forms and long verb complexes. High verbosus values tend to appear in action-oriented narratives or procedure-oriented genres; lower values are often found in description-heavy or nominally framed registers. The term is primarily metaphorical rather than a formal grammatical category and is used more in stylistic analysis than in strict typology.

In historical and typological linguistics, languages with rich verbal morphology or polysynthetic tendencies may be described as more verbosus in terms of potential verbal expression, whereas isolating languages may be less verbosus on average. The concept remains informal and is not standardized across disciplines. It is often used in conlangs and teaching to convey a language’s emphasis on verbs.

See also: verbosity, periphrasis, verbal morphology, language style analysis. Note that verbosus is distinct from verbose, which refers to overall wordiness rather than a specific focus on verbs.