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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



... of the horse, Cinq-Mars, was thus named by abbreviation. This name will often occur in ...
— Cinq Mars, Complete • Alfred de Vigny

... 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

... Vin—by which abbreviation he was familiarly known through the ward—corresponded with the sketch we have given of his character. His head, upon which his 'prentice's flat cap was generally flung in a careless and oblique fashion, was closely covered with thick hair of raven black, which curled naturally ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... at the end of a sentence; as, God is love. Life is short. Or is used after an abbreviation; as, ...
— McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... while the sign Ye Olde Booke Store, in Old English text over a bookseller's door, strikes the public invariably as a most merry conceited jest; especially if the first letter be pronounced as a y, instead of, what it really is, a mere abbreviation of th. But in order that this may be so, the language travestied should not be too old. There would be nothing amusing, for example, in a burlesque imitation of Beowulf, because the Anglo-Saxon of the original is utterly strange to the modern ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... 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

... say his name 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 ...
— Canada and the Canadians - Volume I • Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

... 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

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

... Bodleian received the following other 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 middle of the title page, on either ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale

... density of the atmosphere was changed at the deluge, having been considerably attenuated, nor can this inference be regarded in the light of mere speculation: there seems sufficient evidence that it really must have been so. The rainbow appearing for the first time—the abbreviation of human life, and the diminished size of animal and vegetable forms, all seem to require this condition. Far be it from us to doubt the direct interposition of JEHOVAH in this catastrophe, but GOD sometimes employs secondary agents to ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XIX. No. 554, Saturday, June 30, 1832 • Various

... 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 ...
— The Strolling Saint • Raphael Sabatini

... of Edie," she continued, "is that by which my darling granny always called me, and it sounded so familiar—yet so strange—coming from your lips. But, after all, it is a natural abbreviation. Well, as I said, an accident befell me. I had burst away from the thieves in a state of wild horror, and was attempting to rush across a crowded thoroughfare, when a cab knocked me down. I felt a sharp pang of pain, heard a loud shout and ...
— My Doggie and I • R.M. Ballantyne

... 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, ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... and perceived my future master talking with the captain of the vessel. Philip Bramble was a spare man, about five feet seven inches high, he had on his head a low-crowned tarpaulin hat, a short P-jacket (so called from the abbreviation of pilot's jacket) reached down to just above his knees. His features were regular, and, indeed, although weatherbeaten, they might be termed handsome. His nose was perfectly straight, his lips thin, his eyes gray and ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... nervous ode, the author has shown equal power of judgment and imagination. Nothing can be more striking than the violent and abrupt abbreviation of the measure in the fifth and sixth verses, when he feels the strong influence of the ...
— The Poetical Works of William Collins - With a Memoir • William Collins

... the meaning of the abbreviation B. L. M. in Italian epistolary correspondence? I have reason to believe that it is used {586} where some degree of acquaintance exists, but not in addressing an entire stranger. In a correspondence now before me, one of the ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 216, December 17, 1853 • Various

... what the newspapers call a "fan," which is an abbreviation of the word "fanatic." There is no harm in being a baseball enthusiast, provided that we do not allow it to interfere with our work or allow our desire to witness games to take the place ...
— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller

... of the factories have, indeed, not yet reached the point at which the greatest possible achievement which can be reached without over-fatigue may be secured. We called the abbreviation of the working day an experimental scheme. The question of reducing the working hours is so simple that no further special experiments are needed. But when we come to the questions of the pauses at work, the speed of work and similar ...
— Psychology and Industrial Efficiency • Hugo Muensterberg

... portion of the Jewish interpreters, indeed, likewise consider them as names of the Messiah, but not in such a manner that He is called "Jehovah," and then, in apposition to it, "Our righteousness," but rather in such a manner that [Hebrew: ihvh cdqnv] is an abbreviation of the whole sentence. Thus the Chaldean, who thus paraphrases: "And this is the name by which they shall call him: Righteousness [Pg 419] will be bestowed upon us from the face of the Lord;" Kimchi, "Israel shall call the Messiah by this name: The Lord our righteousness, because at His ...
— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2 • Ernst Hengstenberg

... shortness &c adj.; brevity; littleness &c 193; a span. shortening &c v.; abbreviation, abbreviature^; abridgment, concision, retrenchment, curtailment, decurtation^; reduction &c (contraction) 195; epitome &c (compendium) 596. elision, ellipsis; conciseness &c (in style) 572. abridger, epitomist^, epitomizer^. V. be short &c adj.; render short &c adj.; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... in this chapter is the abbreviation "Phi. B. K.". The "Phi" replaces the actual Greek character that was in the ...
— Initial Studies in American Letters • Henry A. Beers

... which they have warned neutral ships to keep away. This Government has already taken occasion to inform the Imperial German Government that it cannot admit the adoption of such measures or such a warning of danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent neutrality; and that it must hold the Imperial German Government to ...
— Fighting For Peace • Henry Van Dyke

... What is an abbreviation? One or more of the letters of a word standing for the ...
— 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading • B. A. Hathaway

... found possible to trace much more widely than it is possible to 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 ...
— The Relations Between Religion and Science - Eight Lectures Preached Before the University of Oxford in the Year 1884 • Frederick, Lord Bishop of Exeter

... by one of its branches, because it is the nature of this tree to produce a branch every month. They farther represent it by the fourth part of an acre of land." The whole acre divided into four denotes the bissextile period of four years. The abbreviation of this figure of a field in four divisions, is manifestly the letter ha or het, the seventh in the Samaritan alphabet; and in general all the letters of the alphabet are merely astronomical hieroglyphics; and it is for ...
— The Ruins • C. F. [Constantin Francois de] Volney

... abbreviation has been found necessary to avoid the whole of a twice-told tale; but nothing material ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... abbreviation. Rialto is the name, not of the bridge, but of the island from which it is called; and the Venetians say, Il ponti di Rialto, as we say Westminster Bridge. In that island is the Exchange; and I have often walked there as on classic ground.... 'I Sopportichi,' says Sansovino, writing in 1580 [Venetia, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... words of the motto, 'Christus Exaltus Salvatar,' shall be displayed in a semi-circle upon the upper part of the field, on either side of the standard of the cross, and, encompassing the whole in a bordure, the following words, in full or in proper abbreviation thereof, 'The Seal of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in ...
— The God-Idea of the Ancients - or Sex in Religion • Eliza Burt Gamble

... at the abbreviation "'Varsity." It was at that time the proper thing to speak of ...
— The Longest Journey • E. M. Forster

... afforded full exercise for the musical propensities of Darby Grimshaw's great anvil. This hut was a general resort to all the idlers in the vicinity; Grim, as he was generally styled for the sake of abbreviation, discharging the office of "preses," or chief moderator, in all debates held therein. He was a shrewd fellow and a bold one. A humorous and inquisitive cunning lurked in the corner of his grey and restless eye. His curiosity was insatiable; and as a cross-questioner, when fairly at work, for ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... to painting, and it is well to consider it here. Both the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons understood its use. It has been employed as an art ever since the sixth and seventh centuries. The term "niello" probably is an abbreviation of the Italian word "nigellus" (black); the art is that of inlaying an engraved surface with a black paste, which is thoroughly durable and hard as the metal itself in most cases, the only difference being in flexibility; if the metal plate is bent, the ...
— Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages • Julia De Wolf Addison

... was Coffroth. The "boys" fondly called him "Jim" Coffroth. There is no surer sign of popularity than a popular abbreviation of this sort, unless it is a pet nickname. Coffroth was from Pennsylvania, where he had gained an inkling of polities and general literature. He gravitated into California polities by the law of his nature. He was born for this, having what a friend calls the gift ...
— California Sketches, Second Series • O. P. Fitzgerald

... accomplished Grecian. These lapses, in a man who had 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 ...
— Scenes of Clerical Life • George Eliot

... Sorrow,' 'The Vision of Sudden Death,' and 'Dream Fugue.' The last named is the most perfect in its conception, the most powerful in its execution. It is too long to quote, too sublime to be marred by abbreviation. If any one desires to see what can be done with the English language in an 'effort to wrestle with the utmost power of music,' let him read that dream. We shall, meanwhile, present one from the year 1820, and leave the reader to form ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... edition. Czechoslovakia has been superseded by the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia. The name of the Ivory Coast has been changed to Cote d'Ivoire and the Vatican City became the Holy See. New entries include Location, Map references, Abbreviation (often substituted for the country name), and Digraph (two-letter country code). Names is a new entry which includes long and short forms of both conventional and local names of countries as well as any former names. Most diacritical marks have been omitted. The electronic ...
— The 1993 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... tragedy as a whole, but a public largely unfamiliar with German and 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 ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... division is into Simple and Complex. Several propositions joined by a conjunction do not make a complex proposition. The conjunction, so far from making the two one, adds another, as being an abbreviation generally of an additional proposition: e.g. and is an abbreviation of one additional proposition, viz. We must think of the two together; while but is an abbreviation of two additional propositions, viz. We must think of them together, and we ...
— Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of Logic • William Stebbing

... 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 of a monstrous snuff-box. A ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac

... was a notable reformer and probably after his time Indian words were rendered in Chinese characters as accurately as Chinese words are now transcribed in Latin letters. It is true that modern pronunciation makes such renderings as Fo seem a strange distortion of the original. But it is an abbreviation of Fo-t'o and these syllables were probably once pronounced something like Vut-tha.[785] Similarly Wen-shu-shih-li[786] seems a parody of Manjusri. But the evidence of modern dialects shows that the first two syllables may have been pronounced as Man-ju. The pupil was probably ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot

... 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

... far as I know, occur only in charters and which may often be more correctly regarded as proper nouns, have not been separately inserted. Their meaning can however always be ascertained by referring to their components, and where the abbreviation Mdf is inserted the reader will understand that examples of words so compounded, or of the components, or of both, will be found in Birch's Cartularium Saxonicum, or in Earle's Land Charters, and that ...
— A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary - For the Use of Students • John R. Clark Hall

... dissuade me, but I persisted and offered myself for examination, and found him on the examining committee. He was really fond of me, and in my own interest wanted me to go through college with honors, but this was to me of trivial importance, compared with the abbreviation by a year of the captivity of college life. He punished me by putting me to read for examination a passage of Juvenal, which I had never opened, as it did not come in the course even of the sophomores, but I passed fairly ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I • Stillman, William James

... call the '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 have been 'Dav[)i]sia'. ...
— Society for Pure English Tract 4 - The Pronunciation of English Words Derived from the Latin • John Sargeaunt

... abbreviation and corruption of "di sua Signoria,"— "by your highness's leave." "Chow" I have explained already. "Stia ...
— Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino • Samuel Butler

... apostrophe for the possessive case is added only to nouns, not to the pronouns, which have their distinct possessive forms. Its is a possessive pronoun. It's is an abbreviation for it is. Do not use an apostrophe with the possessive adjectives hers, ours, ...
— Punctuation - A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and - their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically • Frederick W. Hamilton

... of assent is an abbreviation of "Hearkening and obedience are due to God and to the Commander of the Faithful" ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne

... reading of the Palatine MS. (now lost) was paraklhsiz Maximon, which C. supposes to conceal the letters kl as an abbreviation of Claudius. ...
— Meditations • Marcus Aurelius

... Satnami movement might by now have developed in Chhattisgarh into a social war. Over most of India the term Hindu is contrasted with Muhammadan, but in Chhattisgarh to call a man a Hindu conveys primarily that he is not a Chamar, or Chamara according to the contemptuous abbreviation in common use. A bitter and permanent antagonism exists between the two classes, and this the Chamar cultivators carry into their relations with their Hindu landlords by refusing to pay rent. The records of the criminal courts contain many cases ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell

... planet on its English side. To such an extent was this pushed, 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 ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... newspaper and magazine has its own distinct typographical style in capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation, hyphenation, and the use of numerical figures. Some newspapers and periodicals have a style book giving rules for the preparation and editing of copy. A careful reading of several issues ...
— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

... interpretation is allegorical and sometimes very fanciful, as in the following passage, for the right understanding of which the reader should know that the two Greek letters [Greek: IE], which stand first in the name [Greek: IESOUS], JESUS, and represent that name by abbreviation, signify as numerals, the first ten, the second, eight; also that the Greek letter [Greek: T] (the sign of the cross) denotes as a numeral, three hundred. "The Scripture says," argues Barnabas, "that Abraham circumcised of his house three hundred and eighteen men. ...
— Companion to the Bible • E. P. Barrows

... surface of the body when the circuit is closed, the kathode being applied elsewhere; it is due, presumably, to direct action on the motor nerve. It is a term in electro-therapeutics. It is the converse of anodic opening contraction, q. v. An abbreviation A. C. C. is often used to ...
— The Standard Electrical Dictionary - A Popular Dictionary of Words and Terms Used in the Practice - of Electrical Engineering • T. O'Conor Slone

... the most 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 Herculean ...
— The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • Washington Irving

... name, a familiar abbreviation, and Mephistophelian was her nature. She had all the usual vices of the feline tribe, including a double portion of those which men are so fond of describing as feminine. Vain, indolent, selfish, with a highly cultivated taste ...
— Lords of the Housetops - Thirteen Cat Tales • Various

... sweet promise Of the woman's seed, and now confirmest the same In the seed of me. Forsooth great is thy goodness. I cannot perceive but that thy mercy is endless. To such as fear thee, in every generation, For it endureth without abbreviation. This have I printed in deep consideration, No worldly matter can rase it out of mind. For once it will be the final restoration Of Adam and Eve, and other that hath sinned; Yea, the sure health and race of mankind. Help have the faithful thereof, though they be infect; They, condemnation, ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous

... the first time on Indian ground, and it had for me a strangely sweet sound, so I adopted it for my character, and now I learn here that it is, in this country, but the abbreviation ...
— The Northern Light • E. Werner

... esse laboro, obscurus fio. Yet as I have resolved that THE VERY Journal 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 has probably been as follows: 'In his book ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell

... convenient to make abbreviations for the names of the elements so that they can quickly write what a thing is made of. They indicate hydrogen by the letter H. O always means oxygen to the chemist; C means carbon; and Cl means chlorine, the poison gas so much used in the World War. The abbreviation stands for the Latin name of the element instead of for the English name, but they are often almost alike. The Latin name for the metal sodium, however, is natrum, and chemists always write Na when they mean sodium; this is fortunate, because S already stands for the element sulfur. ...
— Common Science • Carleton W. Washburne

... The word is so written in the original draft. There was a place of the name near Old Fort in the Crimea, but this is more probably an abbreviation ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume III (of 3), 1854-1861 • Queen of Great Britain Victoria

... the house of Yuan used to be buried near this hill. It may therefore be plausibly supposed that the tombs of the Mongol Khans were near the Kerulen, and that the 'K'i-lien' of the Yuan shi is to be applied to this locality; it seems to me even, that K'i-lien is an abbreviation, customary to Chinese authors, of Kerulen. The way of burying the Mongol Khans is described in the Yuan shi (ch. 'On the national religious rites of the Mongols'), as well as in the Ch'ue keng lu, 'Memoirs of the time of the Yuan Dynasty.' When burying, the greatest care was taken ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... heard a step near her. The sound startled her, it was so near; and, looking up, she discovered the young man whom she had spoken to close beside her. He was not Don John of Austria, but Donald John Ramsay of Belfast, who had been addressed by his companions simply as Don, a natural abbreviation of his first name, until he of Austria happened to be mentioned in the history recitation in school, when the whole class looked at Don, and smiled; some of the girls even giggled, and got a check for it; but the republican young gentleman became a ...
— The Yacht Club - or The Young Boat-Builder • Oliver Optic

... whom I must do the justice to say, 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

... the "Nibelungen Lied" so also in the "Edda," Sigurd (abbreviation for Siegfried) is not a Scandinavian, but a Southern, a Rhenish, a German hero. The whole scene of the tragic events is laid in the Rhinelands, where the killing of the Worm also takes place. On a hill in Frank-land Sigurd frees Brynhild from the magic slumber into which Odin ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... sign 8va...... (an abbreviation of all'ottava, [Transcriber's Note: Corrected error "al ottava" in original.] literally at the octave) above the staff, indicates that all tones are to be sounded an octave higher than the notes ...
— Music Notation and Terminology • Karl W. Gehrkens

... Fal is an abbreviation of Failte! welcome! and la as already noted signifies a day. The words should be properly written Failte! la! la! The chorus appears in the "Invitation to May," by Thomas ...
— The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 1875 • Various

... 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! if I advanced a step you ...
— The Victorian Age in Literature • G. K. Chesterton

... town of Nuestra Senora Santa Maria el Antigua del Darien was founded on the western coast of the Gulf or Culata de Uraba, in 1509; and that later (despues desto passado) Ojeda passed to the eastern coast of the Culata to construct the town of San Sebastian de Uraba. The former, called by abbreviation Ciudad del Antigua, had soon a population of 2000 Spaniards; while the latter, the Ciudad del Uraba, remained uninhabited, because Francisco Pizarro, since known as the conqueror of Peru, was forced to abandon it, ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V3 • Alexander von Humboldt

... in making machines of various sorts, and became the nation that supplied others with materials, in a state ready prepared for manufacturing: this was a new branch of business, and very lucrative, for, as the machines were kept a secret, the abbreviation of labour was great, and the materials had still the advantage in their sale that a raw material has over manufactured goods; so that the advantages were ...
— An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations. • William Playfair

... hitherto pervaded the ranks of the Assembly, now broke forth at these last words. "I demand," cried a deputy, "that this title of Majesty be no longer employed." "I demand," added another, "that this title of Sire be abolished; it is only an abbreviation of Seigneur, which recognises a sovereignty in the man to whom it is given." "I demand," said the deputy Bequet, "that we be no longer treated as automata, obliged to sit down or stand, just as it pleases ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... 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

... G.A.O.T.U. A masonic abbreviation used as a symbol of the name of God, and signifying the Grand Architect of the Universe. It was adopted by the Freemasons in accordance with a similar practice among all the nations of antiquity of noting the Divine Name by ...
— The Symbolism of Freemasonry • Albert G. Mackey

... person who apparently is endowed with fullest 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 committed by ...
— The Buried Temple • Maurice Maeterlinck

... here, 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. The t ...
— Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine • Edward Harrison Barker

... glide in my little boat 1 by the shore of a peaceful coast and, as a certain writer says, to gather little fishes from the pools of the ancients, you, brother Castalius, bid me set my sails toward the deep. You urge me to leave the little work I have in hand, that is, the abbreviation of the Chronicles, and to condense in my own style in this small book the twelve volumes of the Senator on the origin and deeds of the Getae from olden time to the present day, descending through the generations of the kings. ...
— The Origin and Deeds of the Goths • Jordanes

... it was originally written "mentioun of one N.," the words, "whais name is not expressed," being afterwards added on the margin. The letter N., it may be observed, was an abbreviation of Non nemo, i.e. aliquis, or Somebody, a mode adopted from the Canon Law, when the name of a person was ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... known far and wide as "K.K.," which of course was only an abbreviation of his name. Some said he was a great admirer of Lord Kitchener, who had recently lost his life on the sea when the vessel on which he had started for Russia was sunk by a German mine or submarine; and that ...
— The Chums of Scranton High Out for the Pennant • Donald Ferguson

... 6th century B.C., in Rhodes and Megara with their colonies in Sicily. In all these cases the sound represented was a hard G (as in gig). The rounded form was probably that taken over by the Romans and with the value of G. This is shown by the permanent abbreviation of the proper names Gaius and Gnaeus by C. and Cn. respectively. On the early inscription discovered in the Roman Forum in 1899 the letter occurs but once, in the form written from right to left. The broad lower end of the symbol is rather an accidental pit in the stone than an attempt at a diacritic ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various

... had taken a correspondence 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

... modern abbreviation of chloroform. An up to date bogie man invented for the purpose of ...
— The Silly Syclopedia • Noah Lott

... chance the Fates have ordained for him; for the 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

... he said, "you're a fool!" (Except on occasions when he is very angry, my respected connection never calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation, "Sey"—derived from Seymour—is his usual mode of address to me in private.) "Is it likely I would unload, and wreck the confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a moment? As a director—as Chairman—would ...
— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen

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

... "But the abbreviation, 'Concha,' is very pretty. In fact it's just the thing, it's so very Spanish," returned the master decisively. "And you know that the squaw who hangs about the mining camp is called 'Reservation Ann,' and old Mrs. Parkins's negro cook is called ...
— Trent's Trust and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... gifts as easily as if he had drawn his drama from the Strand instead of from Broadway. The novels piled up in the stations of what he called "the L" (which revealed itself as being a New-York-haste abbreviation of Elevated railroad), were in large proportion English novels, and he had his ingenuous estimate of English novelists, as well ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... God 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

... know, 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 ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... is, the knight. The word yeman, or yeoman, is an abbreviation of yeongeman. As used by Chaucer, it means a servant of a rank above that of groom, but below that of squire. The present use of the word to signify a small landholder is ...
— Six Centuries of English Poetry - Tennyson to Chaucer • James Baldwin

... 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 ...
— Overdue - The Story of a Missing Ship • Harry Collingwood

... 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 to summon ...
— The Black Dwarf • Sir Walter Scott

... withstand any request which she made with earnestness, and as a gratification to herself. But from some feeling, I know not of what kind, the child was never distinguished by the name of Effie, but by the abbreviation of Femie, which in Scotland is equally commonly applied ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... Franklin spent several weeks in the beautiful mansion of his friend, Lord Despencer. We read with astonishment, that Franklin, who openly renounced all belief in the divine origin of Christianity, should have undertaken, with Lord Despencer, an abbreviation of the prayer-book of the Church of England. It is surprising, that he could have thought it possible, that the eminent Christians, clergy and laity of that church, would accept at the hands of a deist, their form ...
— Benjamin Franklin, A Picture of the Struggles of Our Infant Nation One Hundred Years Ago - American Pioneers and Patriots Series • John S. C. Abbott

... Guardian, no unfriendly critic of the present Administration, is "between exercising control and the power to exercise control, between 'shall' and 'may.' If these words of the Act were to be abbreviated, the right abbreviation would have been 'may.' This is the word used by Sir Courtenay Ilbert in his summary of the Secretary of State's powers (The Government of India, p. 145);—'... the Secretary of State may, subject to the provisions embodied in this digest, superintend, direct, and control all ...
— Indian Unrest • Valentine Chirol

... good-natured, eloquent fellow it stands for, that I must not shorten it, though we shall presently abbreviate it for purposes of affectionate reference. He himself liked "Theophil" for its reminiscence of another French poet, though "Theo" was perhaps the more suitable abbreviation for one of his profession. Really, or perhaps rather seemingly, Theophilus Londonderry had two professions,—or say one was a profession and the other was a vocation, a "call." By day he professed to be a clerk in a cotton-office,—and he was no fool at that ...
— The Romance of Zion Chapel [3d ed.] • Richard Le Gallienne

... BRIM. (Abbreviation of Brimstone.) An abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... came to Richling's room one afternoon, and handed him a sealed letter. The postmark was blurred, but it was easy still to read the abbreviation of the State's name,—Kentucky. It had come by way of New York and the sea. The sick man reached out for it with avidity from the large bed in which he sat bolstered up. He tore it open with unsteady fingers, and ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable

... dictamen; fifth, the faults in all kinds of composition (dictandi); sixth is arranged a treatise concerning rhetorical ornament as necessary in meter as in prose, namely, the figures of speech and the abbreviation and amplification of the material; seventh and last are subjoined examples of courtly correspondence and scholastic dictamen, pleasantly composed in verse and rhythms, ...
— Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance - A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism • Donald Lemen Clark

... '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 ...
— Nobody's Boy - Sans Famille • Hector Malot

... the United States cannot admit that the proclamation of a war zone from which neutral ships have been warned to keep away may be made to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights either of American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality. It does not understand the Imperial German Government ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 4, July, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... to draw your attention to the word 'Will' in the English word will-o-the-wisp; it must not be supposed that this Will is the abbreviation of William; it is pure Danish, 'Vild'—pronounced will,—and signifies wild; Vilden Visk, the wild or moving wisp. I can adduce another instance of the corruption of the Danish vild into will: the rustics of this part of ...
— George Borrow and His Circle - Wherein May Be Found Many Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of - Borrow And His Friends • Clement King Shorter

... he 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 ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... fifty cents, although it happened to be a quart of wine; but if I had told him of that, he would probably have fined me for having a blow. [It appears that the mild dissipation of wine-drinking in vogue at Bowdoin at that time was called having a "blow;" probably an abbreviation for the common term "blow-out," applied to entertainments.] There was no untruth in the case, as the wine cost fifty cents. I have not played at all this term. I have not drank any kind of spirits or wine this term, and shall ...
— A Study Of Hawthorne • George Parsons Lathrop

... attention coming through town," and he pointed to the jack he had deposited in the corner. "Look here, Chuck," he fell readily into the common abbreviation for Charlie then prevalent, "you fit me out with a rig like yours, in the morning. You know the ropes and I don't. Then I'll pack up those heavy moccasins I brought along and we can take the train to-morrow night. ...
— The Rogue Elephant - The Boys' Big Game Series • Elliott Whitney



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



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