breve

Forms

breve m or f by sense (plural brevi, superlative brevissimo, adverb brevemente)^[1] The old form Old Italian brieve, with the Tuscan diphthong of a stressed open /ɛ/, was in use until the 17th century.^[2][3][4] Old and dialect forms also include Old Italian breva (at Verona), Sicilian brevi and Piedmontese brév.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin brevis (“short”), continued in its accusative form.^[3][6][7][4] The LEI and Nocentini count it among the inherited words, while Körting calls it half-learned in all the Romance languages that have it and Wiktionary treats it as a borrowing from Latin.^[4][6][8][1] The same word is French bref (Old French brief), Old Occitan breu, Catalan breu, Spanish breve and Portuguese breve;^[6][9] it is missing in Romanian and in the south of Italy, where Latin curtus (“shortened”) took its place.^[10][8]

The noun in the sense “brief, written document” goes back to the neuter Late Latin breve, used for a summary or short writing from the 4th to 6th century, and to Medieval Latin breve “document”, much used in the Latin of medieval Italy.^[10][4][2] Nocentini sees it as a Romance ellipsis of a phrase such as “short letter”.^[6] brief in the sense “papal letter” passed into German as Brief (“letter”) and into English as brief, which came back into Italian, with briefing, as a loan from English.^[6][4]

The Latin adjective comes from Proto-Italic *breɣʷis, from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”); de Vaan reconstructs an u-stem adjective enlarged with *-i-, as in Latin gravis and Latin tenuis.^[11][1] The ancients already compared Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”), and the other cognates are Avestan mərəzu-, Sanskrit मुहु (múhu, “suddenly”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gamaurgjan, “to shorten”) and Old High German murg (“short”).^[3][6][11] The Latin superlative survives as brūma (“winter solstice”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a poem of Jacopo Mostacci of the Sicilian school, from the first half of the 13th century, in a Tuscan copy; the LEI dates the sense “lasting a short time” from 1292, in Bono Giamboni.^[5][4] DELI has “concise” before 1294 in Brunetto Latini, and “short in time” and “short in space” before 1306 in Jacopone da Todi.^[3] The adverbial use “briefly” is in Brunetto Latini's Rettorica (c. 1260–1261).^[5] The noun is older still: DELI and GRADIT date breve “letter of a prince, document” to 1219, in the Breve di Montieri.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective meant short in time, short in space and concise, and also quick, scanty and of little account.^[5] Dante has the adverb in the Inferno: dicerolti molto breve (“I will tell you very briefly”).^[7][12] The literary sense “narrow, small” is in Tasso's “ma è bassa palude e breve stagno”.^[13][12] In prosody a short vowel or syllable is brieve in Leon Battista Alberti (c. 1438) and breve in Varchi (before 1565).^[3] DELI notes that the summing-up use of in breve “in short” follows French en bref, whereas Italian had kept the sense “in a short time”.^[3]

The masculine noun named many kinds of short writing: in the medieval communes a notary's record of a deal, the oath sworn by new magistrates and the town's statute; from the 15th century a papal brief, less solemn than a bull (Savonarola, before 1498); and a small bag with relics or prayers worn round the neck as an amulet, as in Boccaccio.^{[7][3][12][10]} In music the feminine breve is the note worth two semibreves, first recorded in 1491;^[14] French borrowed it in 1703 and German in 1732.^[14]

Timeline

• 1219 – The noun breve “document, letter of a prince” is recorded in the Breve di Montieri.^[3][7]
• First half of the 13th century – The adjective appears in a poem of Jacopo Mostacci.^[5]
• c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses breve as an adverb.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for “concise”.^[3]
• c. 1438 – Brieve is a prosodic term in Leon Battista Alberti.^[3]
• 1491 – Breve is recorded as the name of a musical note.^[14]
• Before 1498 – Savonarola uses breve for a papal letter.^[3]
• 1703 – French borrows the musical breve.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. brief, lasting a short time: Dopo una breve pausa il concerto riprese.^[7][15][2]
2. short in length or distance: Prendemmo un sentiero breve ma ripido.^[7][15][2]
3. concise, using few words; of a person, getting to the point: Il direttore fu breve e chiaro.^[7][15][13]
4. (literary) Narrow, small.^[13][16][17]
5. (linguistics, prosody) Of a vowel or syllable: short, of less duration than a long one.^[7][15][2]

Adverb

1. (literary) Briefly, in few words.^[7][13][16]

Noun

1. (feminine) A short vowel or syllable; the breve mark ˘ that shows it.^[7][2][1]
2. (feminine, music) A breve, a note worth two semibreves.^[7][2][17]
3. (feminine, journalism) A short news item.^[2][17]
4. (masculine) A papal brief, a letter of the pope less solemn than a bull.^[7][2][15]
5. (masculine, historical) In the Middle Ages, a notarial document, the oath of a commune's magistrates, or a commune's statute.^[7][15][2]
6. (masculine, archaic) A small bag with relics or a prayer, worn round the neck; an amulet.^[7][15][2]

Word family

• brevemente
• brevità
• abbreviare
• breviario
• semibreve
• brevilineo

Related words

• brevetto
• briefing
• Latin brevis
• French bref

Usage notes

Common phrases are a breve (“shortly”, and in finance “short-term”), tra breve (“soon”), in breve and per farla breve (“in short”).^[15][13][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 7, 373
5. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 596
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli