brachyology

plural brachyologies · alternative brachylogia · alternative brachylogy

1. especiallyA figure of speech that is an abbreviated expression, for example, the omission of "good" from "good morning!" (resulting in the abbreviated greeting "morning!").

   The expression "being-in-Christ" is, therefore, according to Schweitzer, "merely a brachyology for being partakers in the Mystical Body of Christ."

   2001, Sang-Won (Aaron) Son, Corporate elements in Pauline anthropology: a study of the selected terms, idioms, and concepts in the light of Paul's usage and background, page 35

   4 more examples

   In the words [...of] Acts x. 39. there might be a brachyology, in case the sense were: we are witnesses of all that he did, of this also, that they put him to death. But such an omission is not necessary.

   1840, Georg Benedikt Winer, A grammar of the idioms of the Greek language of the New Testament, translated from German to English by J. H. Agnew and O. G. Ebbeke, page 442

   So also in Ps 118²⁷ the preposition עד might include the verb ‘come,’ which connects itself so naturally with ‘until,’ and a poetical mode of expression, which is naturally disposed to vivid brachyology (cf. Ps 118), might discover a self-evident point in the circumstance that not the victims themselves but their blood, the precious part of them (Lv 17¹¹), is at last to touch the alter-horns.

   1900 September, Ed. König, “Psalm cxviii 27b”, in James Hastings (editor), The Expository Times, Volume XI, Number 12, T. & T. Clark (publisher), page 566

   The only trouble is with "over all things;" what is His relation to them? Evidently that of Head also. No other view is admissible exegetically; the question becoming thus a purely grammatical one: Shall we accept a brachyology and understand a second κεφαλην before τη εκκλησια (MEYER, STIER, HODGE approvingly): "gave Him the Head over all things (to be the Head) to the church," or [...]

   1870, Philip Schaff (translator) in John Peter Lange, A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: critical, doctrinal, and homiletical, volume 7, page 68

   The author employs a brachyology in the last phrase: the hearers of the phrase "than Abel" [...] will be able to fill this out as "than the blood of Abel" from the mention of "blood speaking" [...] in the preceding phrase.

   2000, David Arthur deSilva, Perseverance in gratitude: a socio-rhetorical commentary on the Epistle "to the Hebrews", page 468