An abbreviated summary or abridgment of a larger work; a condensed version.
From French abrégé, derived from Latin abbreviare (to shorten). The French passed this term to English in the 17th century to describe condensed versions of books and texts.
Before CliffsNotes, people read abreges—French scholars created shortened versions of long texts for busy readers, essentially inventing the study guide 400 years before SparkNotes.
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