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noun
Abbreviation  n.  
1.
The act of shortening, or reducing.
2.
The result of abbreviating; an abridgment.
3.
The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.
4.
(Mus.) One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Abbreviation" Quotes from Famous Books



... quill, and his successor was hardly on his throne, before he began to publish. The principal officers of the Empire, and emigres without number, have fairly set to work as so many disinterested historians, and even a lady, who, by way of abbreviation, is called "The Widow of the Grand Army," is giving us regularly volumes, whose eccentricities and periodicity, as the astronomers say, can be reduced to known laws, by the ...
— Recollections of Europe • J. Fenimore Cooper

... Mr. Marwood. "You see, we have a little joke about it. His name is Charles Croyden and sometimes in jest we call him C. C. Now C. C. ware (an abbreviation for cream-colored) is one of the cheapest of the white earthenwares. When first manufactured it used to be of a pale yellowish tint, but now it is made in white. Nevertheless its quality has not been materially improved. As Mr. Croyden manufactures only the finer grades ...
— The Story of Porcelain • Sara Ware Bassett

... there was on his part not the least anger, but a good-humoured sportiveness. Nay, though he knew of his Lordship's indisposition towards him, he was even kindly; as appeared from his inquiring of me after him, by an abbreviation of his name, 'Well, how does Monny?' BOSWELL. Boswell (Hebrides, post, v. 74) says:—'I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other; yet I was unwilling not to visit his lordship, and was also curious to see them together.' Accordingly, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell

... minor epics from Burton's collection: Pigmalion's Image (1598), Venus and Adonis (1602), Samacis and Hermaphroditus (1602), and Hero and Leander (1606).[31] Burton regularly wrote his name in full, some abbreviation thereof, or at least his initials, on the title page of his books, usually across the middle. In Philos and Licia, Burton's heavily and distinctively written initials RB are written a bit below the ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale

... view the old adult phases are not obliterated but persist in a more or less modified form as larval stages. It is further supposed that as the life-history lengthens at one end by the addition of new adult phases, it is shortened at the other by the abbreviation of embryonic development and by the absorption of some of the early larval stages into the embryonic period; but on the whole the lengthening process has exceeded that of shortening, so that the whole life-history has, with the progress of evolution, become ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... said," cried my drummers—"Nelly" being an abbreviation of Kornel, my Christian name—and since the "Du meine" really sounded like "Dumany" and not at all like "Belacsek," the candidate of the other party, and since the dead man could not be made to repeat his vote, whereas my drummers were ready to take ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... presently this ill-considering merchant, who but a short time before would have unhesitatingly cast himself bodily to earth on the approach of a city magistrate, now acquired the habit of alluding to mandarins in casual conversation by names of affectionate abbreviation. Also, being advised of the expediency by a voice speaking in an undertone, he sought still further to extend beyond himself by suffering his nails to grow long and obliterating his name from the public announcements ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah

... gone through the Eleusinian mysteries of a university education, surprised the young ladies of his parish extremely; especially the Misses Farquhar, whom he had once addressed in a letter as Dear Mads., apparently an abbreviation for Madams. The persons least surprised at the Rev. Amos's deficiencies were his clerical brethren, who had gone through the ...
— Scenes of Clerical Life • George Eliot

... beg your pardon." That, however, would be more properly the expression to use if you brushed your coat over their heads, or spilled water over them, or did something to them for which you should actually beg their pardon. But "Beg pardon," which is an abbreviation, is one of the phrases never said in ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... we now have it, is opposed to all God's laws. It is by no means an equal partnership. The silent partner loses everything. On the domestic sign, the existence of a second person is not recognized by even the ordinary abbreviation, Co. There is the establishment of John Jones. Perhaps his partner supplies all the cents and the senses—but no one knows who she is or whence she came. If John is a luminous body, she shines in his reflection; if not, she hides herself in his shadow. But she ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... few moments before Adelle realized that the "Sam" at the bottom of the old letter was an abbreviation for her grandfather's name. It was old Samuel Clark's signature. When she had grasped this fact, she turned back to look at the date. It was 1847—July 19. She looked at the envelope. It was addressed to "Mr. Edward S. Clark," at "Mr. Knowlton's, 8 Dearborn St., Chicago." ...
— Clark's Field • Robert Herrick

... on one of these jaunts that he met "Saw Logs," who, after sizing him up for a day, promptly called him "Tommy," an abbreviation instantly adopted by Maria—so fine, you know, to call a fellow "Tommy" who knew everybody and went everywhere. Sometimes she shrieked his name the length of the deck. On reaching London it was either the Carlton ...
— A Gentleman's Gentleman - 1909 • F. Hopkinson Smith

... though free, would not leave his master. He would have died for him. He was a man of about thirty, vigorous, active, clever, intelligent, gentle, and calm, sometimes naive, always merry, obliging, and honest. His name was Nebuchadnezzar, but he only answered to the familiar abbreviation of Neb. ...
— The Mysterious Island • Jules Verne

... sociable, and led her away with him, and two hours later he had manufactured a little cradle for her out of biscuit boxes which are used on the march for making coffins. In the evening Michel put her to bed in it. He had christened her 'Tonton,' an abbreviation of Touareg. In the morning the cradle was bound on an ass, and behold Tonton following the column with the baggage, in the convoy of the rear guard, under the indulgent eye ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various

... difference in their conditions, for there was another chair or two in the humble dwelling; and then the two fell into talk—first about Kester, whom his sister would persist in calling Christopher, as if his dignity as her elder brother was compromised by any familiar abbreviation; and by-and-by she opened ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. III • Elizabeth Gaskell

... she exclaimed, using a familiar abbreviation of Doctor, 'I am devilish glad to see you, for I am bored to death ...
— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn

... equivalents to a word or a look answer to, and are answered by, the half-realised conception. Hence it often happens that even where our touch seems to ourselves delicate and precise, a mind not initiated in our self-chosen method of abbreviation finds only impenetrable obscurity. It is then in the tentative condition of mind just indicated that the spirit of art comes in, and enables a man so to clothe his thought in lucid words and fitting ...
— Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1883 • T. Hall Caine

... "Forest that is over Breg." MS. fid dar bre, with mark of abbreviation. This is read to be dar Breg. Professor Rhys (Arthurian Legend, p. 28) renders "to cover Darbrech ...
— Heroic Romances of Ireland Volumes 1 and 2 Combined • A. H. Leahy

... is an abbreviation of Pollok—can no more dive into "the course of time" than that poet could do, and it is about as vain for him to predict that the American bald eagle shall claw all the fish on the continent of the New World, as it is to fancy that the time is never to come when the Canadian races, ...
— Canada and the Canadians - Volume I • Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

... three-year-old say "good-bye" long after the front door is closed and our guest well on his way down the street. In stories we must take a leisurely pace. We must also read very slowly allowing ample time for a child to give the full motor expression to his thought for the art of abbreviation he has ...
— Here and Now Story Book - Two- to seven-year-olds • Lucy Sprague Mitchell

... to write, after the name of the plant, the name, or an abbreviation of it, of the person who gave the name. Below will be found a brief history and the name ...
— The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise - Its Habitat and its Time of Growth • M. E. Hard

... Plants of this group, that may be grown from seed and which do show a limited variability, are distinguished from botanical varieties by placing them in a new category called cultivar (a name coined long ago by L. H. Bailey and meaning, a variety from cultivation). The abbreviation for the category is cv. Furthermore, in an effort to differentiate cultivar names from botanical names, it is provided that they be treated as are vernacular or fancy (common) names. That is, that the name be placed in single ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting • Various

... found quite near the surface, just as it might naturally have fallen amid the ruins of an old building, covered merely by the fallen leaves; the inscription is in an excellent state of preservation and, without abbreviation, reads ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond

... (martele) the Saracens. Certain writers of the present day style him, in this sense, Karle-le-Marteau. The word martel, in the ancient Frank language, never bore such a signification, but was, on the contrary, merely an abbreviation of Martellus, Martin."[3] ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 6. Saturday, December 8, 1849 • Various

... an abbreviation of Shah-in-Shah ("King of Kings"), the title by which the monarchs of Persia are known; may also be used in Afghanistan and other Asiatic countries, but more generally the less assuming title ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... &c. adj.; brevity; littleness &c. 193; a span. shortening &c. v.; abbreviation, abbreviature[obs3]; abridgment, concision, retrenchment, curtailment, decurtation|; reduction &c. (contraction) 195; epitome &c. (compendium) 596. elision, ellipsis; conciseness &c. (in style) 572. abridger, epitomist[obs3], epitomizer[obs3]. V. be short &c. adj.; render short &c. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... of the preceding, born Jeanne-Athenais de l'Estorade (Nais, by familiar abbreviation) in February, 1827; the precocious and rather spoilt child of the Comte and Comtesse Louis de l'Estorade. [Letters of Two Brides. The ...
— Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z • Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe

... small letter may be so indicated by drawing a line downward from right to left through the letter. Because of the haste frequently necessary in writing copy, it has become a trick of the trade to enclose within a circle an abbreviation, a figure, or an ampersand that the writer desires the printer to spell out in full. Do not "ring" a figure or a number, however, without being sure it should be spelled out. It is much easier for a copy-reader to ring a number that needs to be ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer

... cried Mr. Peter York, addressing that gentleman with a familiar abbreviation of his patriotic Christian name—"look yeah, a ...
— Venus in Boston; - A Romance of City Life • George Thompson

... inherited many irregular verbal conjugations from the past as part of their national property, and these, by the nature of the case, comprise most of the commonest words in the language, because the most used is the most subject to abbreviation and modification. But these irregular types of inflection have long been dead, in the sense that they are fossilized survivals, incapable of propagating their kind. When a new word is admitted into the language, it is conjugated ...
— International Language - Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar • Walter J. Clark

... unconcerned about Wagner's philosophical purposes can much more easily spare than endure them. In later years they were restored at the Metropolitan performances, but I make no doubt that Mr. Seidl's wise abbreviation had much to do with the unparalleled success of the drama in its first season. Persons familiar with the German tongue and the tetralogy, either from study of the book and music or from attendance on performances in Germany, were justified in being ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... had been almost entirely devoured by the ants, while the surname had also suffered here and there, Sir John ingeniously persuaded himself that what remained had clearly belonged to the signature of the great satirist; as for the date, the abbreviation of "Nov. 20th." and the figures 16— marking the century, were really tolerably distinct. Accordingly, Sir John wrote a brief notice of Butler's Life, dwelling much upon his well-known poverty, and quoting his epitaph, with the allusion to his indigence underscored, "lest he who living ...
— The Lumley Autograph • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... following tables I have not attempted to mark the years of the Indiction, on account of the confusion caused by the fact that two calendar years require the same number. But I have denoted by the abbreviation 'Ind.' the years in which each cycle of the Indictions began. These years are 492, 507, 522, 537, ...
— The Letters of Cassiodorus - Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of - Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator • Cassiodorus (AKA Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator)

... are formed by abbreviation; some also add s, as Fritz for Frieds from Friedrich, Hanns for Hann from Johann. (To this answers our s or c in the forms Betsy, Nancy, Elsie, &c.) Some take chen (our kin, as mannikin) as Franschen, Hannchen. Thus Catskin in the nursery ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850 • Various

... Latin passages use the abbreviation "q;" for "que".] Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione quaerentes. [error for "querentes"] maechos [correct form is "moechos"; ae/oe ...
— Ebrietatis Encomium - or, the Praise of Drunkenness • Boniface Oinophilus

... burn during the three festivals; but they carefully preserve a piece to be kindled every time that it thunders."[645] In Berry, a district of Central France, the Yule log was called the cosse de Nau, the last word being an abbreviation of the usual French word for Christmas (Noel). It consisted of an enormous tree-trunk, so heavy that the united strength of several men was needed to carry it in and place it on the hearth, where it served to feed the fire during the three days of the Christmas ...
— Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. • Sir James George Frazer

... under a comb. He did not mind how elaborately long he made a sentence, so long as he made it clear. He would constantly repeat whole phrases word for word in the same sentence, rather than risk ambiguity by abbreviation. His genius showed itself in turning this method of a laborious lucidity into a peculiarly exasperating form of satire and controversy. Newman's strength was in a sort of stifled passion, a dangerous patience of polite logic and then: "Cowards! ...
— The Victorian Age in Literature • G. K. Chesterton

... writer of European fame, whom of all his contemporaries he most admired. In deference to Carlyle he rewrote his opening paragraphs, and added useful dates. European history and spiritual England do come into far greater prominence "as we proceed." The abbreviation and summary of extracts might, I think, have been carried farther with advantage. But it is curious that Froude was attacked for the precisely opposite fault of treating his authorities with too much freedom. Carlyle, who knew what historical labour ...
— The Life of Froude • Herbert Paul

... who, coming to Florence about 1260, bought a vineyard close to where Via Maggio, an abbreviation of Via Maggiore, now is, from the Vellati family. Here they built a monastery and a church, and dedicated them to the Santo Spirito, so that when the city was divided into quartieri this Sestiere d'Oltrarno became Quartiere di S. Spirito. In 1397, ...
— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton

... military, naval, official, or professional titles generally omit any prefix but may use the abbreviation "Mr." if they desire. ...
— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost

... 45 may very well have been meant for it. The monogram at the beginning of the line bears a near resemblance to the sign of Capricorn in its most characteristic feature. And the mark over the sign of Aquarius appears to be an abbreviation of that which usually represents the Sun. (The blot between 1603 and B is nothing; being only meant to represent a figure 6 blotted out with the finger before the ink was dry.) Suspecting therefore that the writing contained a note of the positions of Mercury and ...
— Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature • Sir Francis Bacon

... abbreviation of chloroform. An up to date bogie man invented for the purpose of chasing "has-beens" ...
— The Silly Syclopedia • Noah Lott

... resultants. Similarly, lack of space and the need for clearness have obliged me to write as if shape-preference invariably necessitated the detailed process of ocular perception, instead of being due, as is doubtless most often the case, to every kind of associative abbreviation and ...
— The Beautiful - An Introduction to Psychological Aesthetics • Vernon Lee

... notices and examination lists are posted. The letters S. R. C. denote the Students' Representative Council. An L.L.A. is a Lady Literate in Arts. Math. (as the discerning reader will not be slow to perceive) is an abbreviation, endearing or otherwise, of the word Mathematics. Moral stands for Moral Philosophy. Prof. is a shortened form of Professor, and certif. of certificate. Plough, pluck, and spin are used indifferently, to signify the action of an examiner ...
— The Scarlet Gown - being verses by a St. Andrews Man • R. F. Murray

... (you)," "Kend" being the pleasant abbreviation for "Kegyed," one method of addressing (literally "your grace"), ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai

... intelligence and consciousness; or that misfortune should befall him which seems in its essence to be inexplicable, undeserved, and unexpected. It follows, therefore, that the poet can only place on the stage (this phrase I use merely as an abbreviation: it would be more correct to say, "cause us to assist at some adventure whereof we know personally neither the actors nor the totality of the circumstances") faults, crimes, and acts of injustice ...
— The Buried Temple • Maurice Maeterlinck

... nickname was a disputed question in college tradition. Some maintained that it was due to a habit of plunging through the opposing lines with the power and momentum of an enraged buffalo. Others with equal likelihood held that it was an abbreviation of "bulldog," and had been won by the grit and grip that never let go when he had closed with an enemy. But whatever the origin of the term, all agreed that either definition was good enough to express the courage and power and tenacity of the man. Force—physical force, mental force, moral force—was ...
— Bert Wilson on the Gridiron • J. W. Duffield

... metres the gulping of short syllables, and the abbreviation of syllables ordinarily long by the rapid pronunciation of eagerness and vehemence, are not so much a license, as a law,—a faithful copy of nature, and let them be read characteristically, the times will be found nearly equal. Thus ...
— Literary Remains, Vol. 2 • Coleridge

... and rode some fifteen or twenty miles. It was not until the next morning at St. Laurent d'Olt that I braced myself up to the task of faring on foot by the river through the department of the Aveyron. Here in the upper country the stream retains its ancient name, the Olt, which is merely an abbreviation of Oltis, unless it be the Celtic origin of the Latin word. It is easy to see how in rapid speech L'Olt became changed to Lot. ...
— Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine • Edward Harrison Barker

... mellow, and loving voice—the reader will pardon me, but tears of pleasure and regret come into my eyes at the recollection, as if she personified whatsoever was happy at that period of life, and which has gone like herself. The very sound of the familiar word 'bud' from her lips (the abbreviation of husband,) as she packed it closer, as it were, in the utterance, and pouted it up with fondness in the man's face, taking him at the same time by the chin, was a whole concentrated world of the power ...
— International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 5, July 29, 1850 • Various

... the scenes which had for a thousand miles rendered the passage irksome, began to break as we approached Natchez. This place takes its name from the Natch-i-toches, or Red River, which falls into the Mississippi, the abbreviation being a corruption of the original Indian name, which is as above stated. The town stands on a declivity or bluff, and is of considerable extent. I did not visit it, although the boat halted for a considerable time, to land letter-bags and passengers. I was informed by a ...
— An Englishman's Travels in America - His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States • John Benwell

... in charge by two young gentlemen of the neighbourhood and a pair of gillies. About noon they reached the Kyle of Durness and passed the ferry. By half-past three they were at Cape Wrath—not yet known by the emphatic abbreviation of 'The Cape'—and beheld upon all sides of them unfrequented shores, an expanse of desert moor, and the high-piled Western Ocean. The site of the tower was chosen. Perhaps it is by inheritance of blood, but I know few things more inspiriting than this location of a lighthouse in a designated space ...
— Records of a Family of Engineers • Robert Louis Stevenson

... within the colonel's income, and as the rent was not payable in advance, and the landlord patient, he had surrounded himself not only with all the comforts but with many of the luxuries of a more pretentious home. In this he was assisted by his negro servant Chad,—an abbreviation of Nebuchadnezzar,—who was chambermaid, cook, butler, body-servant, and boots, and who by his marvelous tales of the magnificence of "de old fambly place in Caartersville" had established a credit among the shopkeepers on the avenue ...
— Colonel Carter of Cartersville • F. Hopkinson Smith

... that Lord Capel who defended Colchester for the King during the Civil War. Martyr's Worthy, a mile farther, has a Norman arch to the doorway of its church, but is otherwise unremarkable. "Martyr," by the way, is a misspelt abbreviation for "Mortimer." Itchen Abbas, the goal of this short journey, is not five miles from the centre of Winchester and is a great resort of fishermen. Here Charles Kingsley came to stay at the "Plough" and, I am told, wrote a good part of Water Babies between spells upon the trout ...
— Wanderings in Wessex - An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter • Edric Holmes

... John Thomas Raynor—always called John Thomas, except sometimes, in malice, Coddy. His face sets in fury when he is addressed, from a distance, with this abbreviation. There is considerable scandal about John Thomas in half a dozen villages. He flirts with the girl conductors in the morning, and walks out with them in the dark night, when they leave their tram-car at the depot. Of course, the girls quit the ...
— England, My England • D.H. Lawrence

... of the mistake in Mindas; till you mentioned it, I had forgot that they wrote Windsor "Windesore," and then by abbreviation ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole

... distrust. At this stage in the proceeding, something like a connected and intelligible conversation commenced between the chief who spoke English, and who was known in most of the north- western garrisons of the Americans by the name of Thundercloud, or Cloud, by way of abbreviation, on account of his sinister looks, though the man actually sustained a tolerably fair reputation for one of those who, having been wronged, was so certain to be calumniated. No man was ever yet injured, that he ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper

... setting back of a clasp, in just such a manner as her own had been tightened by Marie, shortly previous to her leaving home. It is now madness or hypocrisy to doubt. What L'Etoile says in respect to this abbreviation of the garter's being an usual occurrence, shows nothing beyond its own pertinacity in error. The elastic nature of the clasp-garter is self-demonstration of the unusualness of the abbreviation. What is made to adjust itself, must of necessity require foreign adjustment but rarely. It must ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... son is named after the father, he adds Jr. to his name. Upon the death of the father he omits it. This abbreviation is sometimes added to a woman's name on her card when her husband has the same name as his father, and it is necessary to distinguish between the cards of the daughter-in-law ...
— The Book of Good Manners • W. C. Green

... word is frequently used, as we now use the word chap, which is in fact the same, being an abbreviation of chapman. ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Robert Dodsley

... Roman comic metres, it is necessary to observe the manner in which the language itself was affected by the common conversational pronunciation. Latin, as it was pronounced, was very different from Latin as it is written; this difference consisted in abbreviation, either by the omission of sounds altogether, or by the contraction of two sounds into one, and in this respect the conversational language of the Romans resembled that of modern nations; with them, as with ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... themselves, wore mid-Victorian whiskers, and shiny cockades on their hats. In Gabrielle's drawing-room the visitors sat on the extreme edges of their chairs. They spoke with a faded propriety, dropped their final "g's," and specialised in the abbreviation "ain't." They stayed for a quarter of an hour exactly by the French clock on the mantelpiece, contriving, in this calculated period, to make it quite clear that they were on terms of intimacy with the Halbertons, and they invariably finished ...
— The Tragic Bride • Francis Brett Young

... of examples in multiplication short methods may be employed and the labor of calculation reduced, but of course for the great bulk of multiplications no practical abbreviation remains. A person having much multiplying to do should learn the table up to twenty, which can be ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs

... existence for half a century, and was already on the road to the degraded level on which we shall find it when we come to the subject of operatic singing, before it came to be called Opera in musica, of which "opera" is an abbreviation. Now it is to be observed that the composers of all countries, having been taught to believe that the dramatic contents of an opera have some significance, are abandoning the vague term "opera" and following Wagner in his adoption of the principles underlying the original ...
— How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. - Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... which Dr. Johnson read, shall be presented to the publick, I will not expand the text in any considerable degree, though I may occasionally supply a word to complete the sense, as I fill up the blanks of abbreviation, in the writing; neither of which can be said to change the genuine Journal. One of the best criticks of our age conjectures that the imperfect passage above was probably as follows: 'In his book ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell

... materialistic atomism, it is one of the best-refuted theories that have been advanced, and in Europe there is now perhaps no one in the learned world so unscholarly as to attach serious signification to it, except for convenient everyday use (as an abbreviation of the means of expression)—thanks chiefly to the Pole Boscovich: he and the Pole Copernicus have hitherto been the greatest and most successful opponents of ocular evidence. For while Copernicus has persuaded us to believe, ...
— Beyond Good and Evil • Friedrich Nietzsche

... the Directory two or three gentlemen with the surname of "George." I could profess to be an earnest Liberal opponent of the PRIME MINISTER, accustomed to refer to him by that disrespectful abbreviation:— ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, June 9, 1920 • Various

... one condition of a phenomenon for the whole cause. To speak of an indispensable condition of any phenomenon as the cause of it, may be a mere conventional abbreviation; and in this way such a mode of expression is common not only in popular but also in scientific discussion. Thus we say that a temperature of 33 deg. F. is a cause of the melting of ice; although that ice melts at 33 deg. F., must further ...
— Logic - Deductive and Inductive • Carveth Read

... "Her memory shall be my better self, a sacred image in my heart before which a sanctuary lamp is ever burning, and which will save me from the temptations of the Evil One." And through the mouth of Heinrich of Ofterdingen he proclaims: "My beloved is the abbreviation of the universe; the universe is the elongation of my beloved." "Heaven has given you to me to worship. I adore you, you are a saint, you are divine glory, you are ...
— The Evolution of Love • Emil Lucka

... barefaced enough not to call their city by the fancy name given it by certain British geographers, we might as well explain why the natives call the capital of Sistan by its real name, Sher-i-Nasrya. The three words mean the "City of Nasr," Nasr being an abbreviation of Nasr-ed-din Shah, in honour of whom the city was named. In Sistan itself the city goes by the shortened name of mere "Sher" or "city," but letters sent by Persians from other parts of the Shah's dominions are generally addressed Sher-i-Nasrya, or ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... cities, towns, villages, States, and Territories, or names of the Canadian Provinces will be counted each as one word: e.g., New York, District of Columbia, East St. Louis should each be counted as one word. The abbreviation of the names of cities, towns, villages, States, Territories, and provinces will be counted the same as if ...
— Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry • War Department

... course, and Bilton was a jaundiced loafer, commonly called Mustard. The good old man sighed and was about to put the will back in the envelope when he noticed three letters at the bottom of the sheet. They were "P.T.O." Now "P.T.O." is an English abbreviation that means "Please Turn Over." The Judge ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler

... original word is Huanu, which is a term in the Quichua dialect meaning "animal dung;" for example, Huanacuhuanu (excrement of the Huanacu). As the word is now generally used it is an abbreviation of Pishu Huanu—Bird-dung. The Spaniards have converted the final syllable nu into no, as they do in all the words adopted from the Quichua which have the like termination. The European orthography ...
— Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests • J. J. von Tschudi

... has died in his eighty-ninth year, it seems irreverent to call him by his nickname. And yet the irreverence is rather in seeming than in reality, for a nickname, a pet-name, an abbreviation, is often the truest token of popular esteem. It was so with the subject of this section, whose perennial youthfulness of heart and mind would have made formal appellation seem ...
— Prime Ministers and Some Others - A Book of Reminiscences • George W. E. Russell

... dubbed him Bill Fish and refused to speak of him by any other term, causing his mother to live in terror lest Mr. Fisher should in some way learn of the disrespectful abbreviation. Roger was not at all enthusiastic about Bill Fish but liked still less the two schools he visited. To accept the tutor seemed the lesser ...
— The Spanish Chest • Edna A. Brown

... owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative ...
— Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92 • Library of Congress. Copyright Office.

... authorities the first {image "monogram3.gif"} which occurs upon any Roman coin, coming as it does after the letter alpha in a Greek inscription, should be taken with that letter as forming the PX of APX, the latter being an abbreviation of some form or other of the title Archon. This title was that given to the dignitary who was at one and the same time the chief magistrate of the state and its chief priest, and it may be worth remark ...
— The Non-Christian Cross - An Enquiry Into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion • John Denham Parsons

... Wawenocks—who made up this great nation, the Sokokis were the wisest and bravest. Wenongonet is proud when he thinks of them. They were his tribe. All the land that sent its waters through the Sawocotuc [Footnote: The Indian appellation of the river Saco, which is doubtless an abbreviation of the Indian name here introduced.] to the sea was theirs. They stood with their warriors at the outposts against the crowding white settlers from the west and south. They were pleased to stand there, because it was the post of danger and of honor in the nation. And there they bravely kept ...
— Gaut Gurley • D. P. Thompson

... acronym is an abbreviation coined from the initial letter of each successive word in a term or phrase. In general, an acronym made up solely from the first letter of the major words in the expanded form is rendered in all capital letters (NATO from North Atlantic ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... reason some wag one day dubbed him "Absalom," which the rest caught up and soon shortened to "Sally." In the proper order of things it should have been "Abe." Wasn't Absalom Sims always called "Abe"? There was obviously an intentional tinge of satire in this unusual abbreviation. ...
— Labrador Days - Tales of the Sea Toilers • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

... even a little rouge on his cheek. To speak more intelligibly, his simple and nervous diction is often wire-drawn into a flashy and feeble paraphrase, and his imagery as well as humour, sometimes annihilated by abbreviation. Nay, to make him the more modish, the good lady is at pains to patch up his style with unnecessary phrases and flourishes in the French taste, which have just such an effect in a translation of Homer, as a bag-wig, and snuff-box would ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange

... and so it was provided. In confirmation of this, the fathers of St. Dominic who came to these islands brought a brief from his Holiness, confirmed by the royal Council, which orders that in each house there should be at least four religious; and they tell me that in the [illegible abbreviation in MS.] they praised it greatly and were much edified. In this way, wherever your Lordship thinks of making a short cut, you take a longer route. To give to the Indians ministers [as you propose?] will be to give them those who would destroy them, or at least who would be of very ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume VIII (of 55), 1591-1593 • Emma Helen Blair

... and all other lines confin'd within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seen made only for the sake of abbreviation. ...
— Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies • Samuel Johnson

... feminine," he said, half sadly. "You know when you look stunning.... But, Carley, the cut of that—or rather the abbreviation of it—inclines me to think that style for women's clothes has not changed for the better. In fact, it's worse than two years ago in Paris and later in New York. Where will you ...
— The Call of the Canyon • Zane Grey

... Abyssinians, Dyaks, Tagals, and New Zealanders. The eyebrows are sometimes raised in affirmation, and as a person in bending his head forwards and downwards naturally looks up to the person whom he addresses, he will be apt to raise his eyebrows, and this sign may thus have arisen as an abbreviation. So again with the New Zealanders, the lifting up the chin and head in affirmation may perhaps represent in an abbreviated form the upward movement of the head after it has been nodded forwards ...
— The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals • Charles Darwin

... protector, and his children for companions;' and then woulde heare more of her parents' sad story. Alsoe, would hear somewhat of Rupert Allington, and how father gained his law-suit. Alsoe, of Daisy, whose name he tooke to be y'e true abbreviation for Margaret, but I tolde him how that my step-sister, and Mercy, and I, being all three of a name, and I being alwaies called Meg, we had in sport given one the significative of her characteristic virtue, and the other that of y'e French Marguerite, which may indeed be rendered either pearl or ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. • Various

... close translation of the complete Theory of Aesthetic, and in the Historical Summary, with the consent of the author, an abbreviation of the historical ...
— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce

... quantity of stored material removed and the best estimate it was possible to make of the percentages or weights of the various species. When the weight was less than 5 grams, the mere trace of the species frequently is indicated in the following tables by the abbreviation "Tr." ...
— Life History of the Kangaroo Rat • Charles T. Vorhies and Walter P. Taylor

... Jack Vance, addressing the new boy by the friendly abbreviation, which seemed by mutual consent to have been bestowed upon him in recognition of his daring exploit—"I say, Diggy, you're in my bedroom: there's you, and me, and Mugford. Mug's an awful chump, but he's a good-natured old duffer, and you and I'll ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery

... words are quoted by Kames, iii. 267. In his abbreviation he perhaps passed over by accident the words that Johnson next quotes. If Clarendon did not believe the story, he wished his readers to believe it. He gives more than five pages to it, and he ends by saying:— 'Whatever there was of all ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... classed as No. 1, four of incense No. 2, and four of incense No. 3,—or twelve in all. But the incense given by the guests,—always called "guest-incense"—is not divided: it is only put into a wrapper marked with an abbreviation of the Chinese character signifying "guest." Accordingly we have a total of thirteen packages to start with; but three are to be used in the preliminary sampling, or "experimenting"—as the Japanese term ...
— In Ghostly Japan • Lafcadio Hearn

... the title of Sidesmen. Some suppose that they are so called because they are elected as assistants to the Churchwardens to stand by their side; other suppose the word to be an abbreviation of Synodsmen, because in ancient times the Bishops summoned certain persons of credit from the various parishes in order to testify as to the morals of the clergy and people. These witnesses were called ...
— Churchwardens' Manual - their duties, powers, rights, and privilages • George Henry

... trace any clear evidence of what we understand by force. And so, at last, we frequently use the word force as it were by anticipation, not to express the cause of the phenomena, which indeed we do not yet know, but as a convenient abbreviation for a large number of facts classed under one head. And this it is which enables Hume to maintain that we mean no more by a cause than an event which is invariably followed by another event. We discover invariability much faster than we can discover causation; and having discovered ...
— The Relations Between Religion and Science - Eight Lectures Preached Before the University of Oxford in the Year 1884 • Frederick, Lord Bishop of Exeter

... Midsummer Night's Dream, V. 1: 'standst' in Q1 is corrupted to 'stands' in Q2 and in Ff. We have therefore confidently replaced the correct form for the incorrect, even without authority to back us; looking upon the variation as a corrupt abbreviation of spelling. ...
— The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] - Introduction and Publisher's Advertising • William Shakespeare

... is an abbreviation of Nadouessioux, an Ojibwa word meaning enemies. The Ojibwas used it to designate this people, and occasionally also the Iroquois, being at deadly war ...
— France and England in North America, a Series of Historical Narratives, Part Third • Francis Parkman

... beautiful little creatures—many of the species not being larger than squirrels, and marked with the most lively colours: as bright red and orange. There are many different kinds of small squirrels known by this name, or by its abbreviation—Titi—some of them belonging to the group of Saimiris, and others to the ...
— Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found - A Book of Zoology for Boys • Mayne Reid

... a gold ducat, fire-new from the mint. The condottiero took it and placed his finger upon the four letters P L A C—the abbreviation of "Placentia" in ...
— The Strolling Saint • Raphael Sabatini

... that many of the scholastic writers became wearied of enunciating or writing his name, and, anticipating the occasional fashion of My lud and Your ludship at our English Bar, or of Hocus Pocus as an abbreviation of pure weariness for Hoc est Corpus, they called him not Socrates, but Sortes. Now, whence, let me ask, was this custom derived? As to Doe and Roe, who or what first set them by the ears together is now probably past all discovery. But as to Sortes, that he was ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... by my innuendo, and shortly after left the shop, I trow, with small inclination to propagate any sedition against me, for the abbreviation I had ...
— The Provost • John Galt

... terrible, and quite too young to have grown into the bashfulness of adolescence; but he has some of the qualities of both these engaging periods of development, The member of the Haouse calls him "Bub," invariably, such term I take to be an abbreviation of "Beelzeb," as "bus" is the short form of "omnibus." Many eminently genteel persons, whose manners make them at home anywhere, being evidently unaware of true derivation of this word, are in the habit of addressing all unknown children by one of the two terms, "bub" ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... it, affectionately and proudly, as "the Con. Camp." The abbreviation was natural enough, for "convalescent" is a mouthful of a word to say, besides being very difficult to spell. I have known a beneficed clergyman of the Church of England come to grief over the consonants ...
— A Padre in France • George A. Birmingham

... that Josephine was any more remarkable in her appearance than most of the extremely young women who annually make their entrance into society, with the average stock of pink and white prettiness. They call them "buds" in Boston—an abbreviation for rosebuds. ...
— An American Politician • F. Marion Crawford

... recent entries. And one of these, made within the last three months, struck him as soon as he looked at it, insignificant as it seemed to be. It was only of one line, and the one line was only of a few initials, an abbreviation or two, and a date: M. & C. v. S. B. cir. 81. And why this apparently innocent entry struck Brereton was because he was still thinking as an under-current to all this, of Mallalieu and Cotherstone—and M. and C. were certainly the initials of those not ...
— The Borough Treasurer • Joseph Smith Fletcher

... I saw it in the market prices; I heard the story in each tick of the ticker and each rustle of the tape; and every time my eye caught "SUG," the stock-exchange abbreviation for Sugar, I winced, as one does at the dentist's probe—well, I could not stand it. I determined to put up Sugar—that is, I determined to try. Little the woman knew what she asked when she wrote: "You will put up Sugar?" She ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson

... call 'Capi,'" said Signor Vitalis, "which is an abbreviation of Capitano in Italian, is the chief. He is the most intelligent and he conveys my orders to the others. That black haired young dandy is Signor Zerbino, which signifies 'the sport.' Notice him and I am sure you ...
— Nobody's Boy - Sans Famille • Hector Malot

... miss,' said Phoebe, for which name 'Phib' was used as a patronising abbreviation, 'if she was only to take copy by a friend—oh! if she only knew how wrong she was, and would but set herself right by you, what a nice young woman she might be ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... Western states, where the racoon is plentiful, they use the abbreviation 'coon when speaking of people. When at New York, I went into a hair-dresser's shop to have my hair cut; there were two young men front the west—one under the barber's hands, the other standing ...
— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... formidable was a burly, roaring, roystering blade, of the name of Abraham, or, according to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van Brunt, the hero of the country round, which rang with his feats of strength and hardihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with short curly black hair, and a bluff but not unpleasant countenance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his ...
— The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • Washington Irving

... Notes, alternation between .' and '. at paragraph-end is as printed. The abbreviation "cf." ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn

... Parcae, or Weird Sisters, do not twist, spin, or draw out a thread, nor yet doth Jupiter perpend, project, or deliberate anything which the good old celestial father knoweth not to the full, even whilst he is asleep. This will be a very summary abbreviation of our labour, if we but hearken unto him a little upon the serious debate and canvassing of this my perplexity. That is, answered Epistemon, a gullery too evident, a plain abuse and fib too fabulous. I will not go, not I; I will ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... Not even would he look upon it as the name of his country. The real native name now used is Cho-sen, though occasionally in the vernacular the kingdom goes by the name of Gori, or the antiquated Korai. There is no doubt that the origin of the word Corea is Korai, which is an abbreviation of Ko-Korai, a small kingdom in the mountainous region of the Ever White Mountains, and bordering upon the kingdom of Fuyu, a little further north, whence the brave and warlike people probably descended, ...
— Corea or Cho-sen • A (Arnold) Henry Savage-Landor

... mentions, that he heard his father, whose veracity was above all question, relate as one of the recollections of the time when he was a young man, that in the parish church where he attended, the service was one Sunday morning performed with a somewhat unusual despatch, and every abbreviation that depended on the discretion of the minister; who at the conclusion explained the circumstance publicly, by saying, that as neighbor such-a-one (mentioning the name) was going to bait his bull in the afternoon, he had been as short as possible that the congregation might have ...
— An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance • John Foster

... female sex in their amours."[102] High praise is rendered by the editor to Lyly, who "was a great refiner of the English tongue in those days." The book appeared not very long before Richardson's "Pamela," a fact worthy of notice, the more so as in this abbreviation of Euphues, the letters contained in the original have been reproduced and look the more conspicuous in the little pamphlet. Quite Richardsonian, too, is the table of contents which is rather a table of good precepts ...
— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand

... 'alias' rule. We may still see this rule in other instances. All men say 'hippop['o]t[)a]mus', and even those who know that this a is short in Greek can say nothing but 'Mesopot[a]mia', unless indeed the word lose its blessed and comforting powers in a disyllabic abbreviation. When a country was named after Cecil Rhodes, where the e in the surname is mute, we all called it 'Rhod[e]sia'. Had it been named after a Newman, where the a is short or rather obscure, we should all have called it 'Newm[a]nia ', while, named after a Davis, it would certainly ...
— Society for Pure English Tract 4 - The Pronunciation of English Words Derived from the Latin • John Sargeaunt

... to her father, by vulgar abbreviation, as "Zo") took Mr. Gallilee's stumpy red hand, and held hard by it as if that was the one way in which a dull child could rouse herself, with a ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins

... is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Saxon of Good, the two words in that language being identical. To many this will be an aid to realizing the omnipresence God, and add to the reverential sense of that personal nearness which makes the Deity a ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson

... are making acquaintance with your new schoolmate! This is my oldest daughter, Miss Beatrice, Ishmael. We call her Bee, because it is the abbreviation of Beatrice, and because she is such a busy, helpful little lady," she said, as she shook hands with the boy and patted the ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... [Footnote 5272: Abbreviation for the "cahier des doleances", in English 'register of grieviances', brought with them by the representatives of the people to the great gathering in Paris of the "States-Generaux" in ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... of this address it seems to have been written to a woman, though there is no internal evidence to support this hypothesis. The best critics are much puzzled about the orthography of this abbreviation. Wartonius and other skilful etymologists contend that it ought to be spelled drummy, being addressed to a lady who was probably fond of warlike instruments, and who had a singular predilection for a canon. Drummy, say they, ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... time was singularly illustrative of what could be accomplished in the way of progress by sailing-ships, even in the embrace of what was to all intents and purposes a stark calm, by active and intelligent officers. It is true that we in the Mercury did but little toward the abbreviation of the distance between the two vessels, for the reason already mentioned, yet when the tenth day of the calm dawned the schooner was hull-up in the southern board, some six miles ...
— Overdue - The Story of a Missing Ship • Harry Collingwood

... hear? if you know, for pity's sake, do not conceal it from me, dearest Gertrude!" entreated Caroline, almost gasping for breath; and Lady Gertrude, without hesitation or abbreviation, related the whole tale her brother had imparted to her, dwelling on the suffering he endured, as he fancied Caroline's conduct ...
— The Mother's Recompense, Volume I. - A Sequel to Home Influence in Two Volumes. • Grace Aguilar

... and I have opened house, not only for the gentry, but for the under spur-leathers whom we must necessarily employ. We have, therefore, little time to prepare to meet them.—Look over these lists, Marchie (an abbreviation by which Mareschal-Wells was known among his friends). Do you, Sir Frederick, read these letters from Lothian and the west—all is ripe for the sickle, and we have but ...
— The Black Dwarf • Sir Walter Scott

... dark grey eyes shine softly. "Empey" is her pet name for him, an abbreviation of "Emperor;" and he likes to ...
— Fifty-Two Stories For Girls • Various

... of Nemours, to use the common abbreviation of the country, wore a velveteen shooting-jacket of bottle-green, trousers of green linen with great stripes, and an ample yellow waistcoat of goat's skin, in the pocket of which might be discerned the round outline ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac



Words linked to "Abbreviation" :   descriptor, signifier, form, word form, apocope, shortening, abbreviate



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