abbreviate

Etymology 1

From Middle English abbreviaten, from Latin abbreviātus, perfect passive participle of abbreviō (“to shorten”), formed from ad + breviō (“shorten”), from brevis (“short”). Alternatively, a back-formation from abbreviation. Doublet of abridge.

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To shorten by omitting parts or details.
   It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. 1597, Francis Bacon, Essays
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To speak or write in a brief manner.
3. (transitive) To make shorter; to shorten (in time); to abridge; to shorten by ending sooner than planned.
   But as delivery schedules have dwindled into hours, even the gigantic warehouse full of stuff in a central place such as the triangle is proving insufficient. Now, companies also need smaller distribution centres around the country, to respond rapidly to orders and to abbreviate the last mile as much as possible. November 21 2019, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian
4. (transitive) To reduce a word or phrase by means of contraction or omission to a shorter recognizable form.
   bovine spongiform encephalopathy is more commonly known by its abbreviated form BSE.
5. (transitive, mathematics) To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.

Etymology 2

From Late Latin abbreviātus, perfect passive participle of abbreviō (“abbreviate”).

adj

1. (obsolete) Abbreviated; abridged; shortened.
   The abbreviate form has never been able to recover that shock. 1892, J. J. Earle, The philology of the English tongue
2. (biology) Having one part relatively shorter than another or than the ordinary type.

noun

1. (obsolete, Scotland) An abridgment.