To shorten, abridge, or summarize written material; to make brief or concise.
From Latin 'breviare' (to shorten), derived from 'brevis' meaning 'short,' used in Medieval and Renaissance English to mean condensing or abbreviating texts.
This is an old verb that's mostly disappeared from modern English, replaced by 'abbreviate,' but it perfectly shows how Latin root 'brevis' invaded English to describe the act of making things short.
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