brevity

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The quality of being brief in duration.

   Thanks to Global Positioning Systems we can see that Europe and North America are parting at about the speed a fingernail grows—roughly two yards in a human lifetime. If you were prepared to wait long enough, you could ride from Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco. It is only the brevity of lifetimes that keeps us from appreciating the changes.

2. 2
   noun

   Succinctness; conciseness.

   [B]revity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes[.]

3. 3
   noun

   the attribute of being brief or fleeting

4. 4
   noun

   the use of brief expressions

5. 5
   noun

   A short piece of writing.

Etymology

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.