Etymology

brevity

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Today it means: The quality of being brief in duration. Full definition →

Latin brevitās ← Anglo-Norman brevité ← Old French brieveté
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The story

  1. Latin · derived frombrevitātem
  2. Old French · derived frombrieveté
  3. Anglo-Norman · derived frombrevité
  4. Latin · borrowed frombrevitās
  5. English todaybrevity

First attested in English in 1509; either: * Borrowed directly from Latin brevitās; or * from Anglo-Norman brevité, from Old French brieveté, from Latin brevitātem, accusative of brevitās, from brevis (“short”). By surface analysis, brief + -ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.