The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is…

abbreviate (verb) – To shorten by contraction or omission, such as agcy., corp., Gov., Dr., Rev.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : Abbreviate and abridge both mean “to make shorter,” so it probably will come as no surprise that both derive from the Latin verb brevis, meaning “short.” Abbreviate first appeared in print in English in the 15th century and derives from abbrevi?tus, the past participle of Late Latin abbrevi?re, which in turn can be traced back to brevis. Abridge, which appeared a century earlier, also comes from abbrevi?re but took a side trip through the Anglo-French abreger before arriving in Middle English as abreggen. Brevis is also the ancestor of English brief itself, as well as brevity and breviary (“a prayer book” or “a brief summary”), among other words.

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