| 释义 |
brevity|ˈbrɛvɪtɪ|
Also 6 breuite, brevyte, 6–7 breuitie, 7 breuity, brevitie.
[prob. a. AF. brevete (F. brièveté):—brevitāt-em ‘shortness’, f. brevi-s short: assimilated to the Latin spelling.]
1. Shortness, esp. as applied to time.
1542–3Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, xxvii. §99 Many sutes..cannot be tried..for breuitie of time. 1628Feltham Resolves i. xxxii. Wks. (1677) 55 Miserable brevity! more miserable uncertainty of life! 1853Robertson Serm. xiv. 177 The deep thought of the brevity of time.
2. The being short in speech or writing; contraction into few words, conciseness, terseness.
1509Barclay Ship of Fooles (1570) 18 If that it were not for cause of breuitie, I could shewe, etc. 1574Whitgift Def. Aunsw. ii. Wks. 1851 I. 237, I omit them for brevity' sake. 1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 90 Since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit..I will be breefe. 1606Holland Sueton. To Rdr., Brevitie is many times the mother of Obscuritie. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 669 Brevity is very good, When w' are, or are not understood. 1732De Foe, etc. Tour Gt. Brit. (1769) II. 287 On the Churn..stands Cirencester (or Cicester, for Brevity). 1811Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) I. 208 Brevity is in writing what charity is to all other virtues.
3. Shortness in other relations. rare and forced.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 135, I will imitate the honourable Romaines in breuitie. Poin. Sure he meanes breuity in breath: short-winded. 1863Riddles (Routledge) Why is wit like a Chinese lady's foot? Because brevity is the sole of it. |