noun, na-adjective
taciturn; reticent; of few words
A yojijukugo describing a person who is habitually silent and speaks very little. Often used in literary or formal descriptions of character.
彼は沈黙寡言な人で、会議でもほとんど発言しない。
He is a taciturn person and hardly speaks even in meetings.
沈黙寡言を美徳とする文化もある。
Some cultures consider reticence a virtue.
A yojijukugo composed of 沈黙 (silence) and 寡言 (few words). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it follows the typical pattern of combining two two-character compounds to form a four-character idiom.