An elliptical FLOTUS?

The headline for a New York Times review of a biography of Pat Nixon: “A New Biography Attempts to Complicate an Elliptical First Lady.”

When it’s not characterizing a shape, elliptical characterizes a manner of expression. Merriam-Webster:

of, relating to, or marked by ellipsis or an ellipsis

of, relating to, or marked by extreme economy of speech or writing

of or relating to deliberate obscurity (as of literary or conversational style)

And J.I. Rodale’s Synonym Finder:

(all of speech and writing ) economic, terse, laconic, concise, succinct, concentrated, compact, neat

(all of speech and writing ) ambiguous, abstruse, cryptic, obscure, recondite, mysterious

It’s speech or writing that might be elliptical, not a person. I think the word the Times needed here is enigmatic.

[The Synonym Finder (1978) is the work of the strange fellow who founded Prevention magazine and died during a taping of The Dick Cavett Show. I don’t know what accounted for his interest in synonyms. I snagged a copy of The Synonym Finder in a used-book store some years ago. I sometimes rely on it for amusing strings of adjectives to describe Newsday Saturday Stumpers.]