brevity

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old French brevete, the Anglo-Norman form,^[2][3][4] with its spelling made closer to the Latin.^[2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1212,^[5] and corresponds to brieveté, modern French brièveté.^[3][2][6] Barnhart takes it from Middle French or directly from Latin,^[7] and several dictionaries give only the Latin source,^[8][9][10] Latin brevitās (“shortness”),^[2][11][12] from brevis (“short”),^[11][8][6] the source also of brief.^[8][7] Etymonline derives brevis from Proto-Indo-European *mregh-u- (“short”).^[11] The French forms with -i- were shaped by brief.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Being short in speech or writing, conciseness: 1509, in A. Barclay's translation of Brant's Ship of Fools, spelled brevitie.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the word to about 1500,^[11] the Shorter Oxford to the late 15th century,^[6] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 15th century, for the sense "shortness of duration".^[9]

Semantic evolution

Both meanings, shortness of expression and shortness in time, are recorded early: the OED finds the first in 1509 and the second, especially of time, in 1542.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "conciseness; shortness; contraction into few words", quoting Dryden on Virgil.^[10] From 1600, in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, the OED also records a rare, forced use for shortness in other respects.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged cites Shakespeare's line "brevity is the soul of wit", and also records a brevity as a short piece of writing or music.^[9]

Timeline

• 1509 – conciseness in speech or writing, as brevitie.^[2][7]
• 1542 – shortness, especially of time.^[2]
• 1600 – shortness in other respects (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Shortness of duration: the brevity of a summer storm.^[9][8][13]
2. The use of few words; conciseness or terseness: Her report was admired for its brevity.^[9][8][13]
3. A short piece of writing or music.^[9]

Related words

• breve
• brief
• abbreviate
• abridge

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from conciseness: brevity stresses that the speech is short in time, conciseness that its expression is compact.^[14] In Aberdeenshire dialect, brevity was recorded in 1902 for a fine show or display, as a form of bravity, from brave.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)