Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AB-BRE'VI-ATE, v.t. [It. abbreviare; Sp. abreviar; Port. abbreviar; from L. abbrevio, brevio, from brevis, short; contraction from Gr. βραχυς, from the root of break, which see.]

1. To shorten; to make shorter by contracting the parts. [In this sense not much used, nor often applied to material substances.]
2. To shorten; to abridge by the omission or defalcation of a part; to reduce to a smaller compass; as, to abbreviate a writing.
3. In mathematics, to reduce fractions to the lowest terms. – Wallis.