Yoïn van Spijk on Nostr: The English word ‘brief’ means “short”, while German ‘Brief’ and Dutch ...

The English word ‘brief’ means “short”, while German ‘Brief’ and Dutch ‘brief’ mean “letter” – and yet they have the same origin.

These words all stem from Latin ‘brevis’, meaning “short”. The Latin combination ‘brevis libellus’ meant “short writing”.

In this sense, ‘brevis’ was borrowed into the ancestor of the West Germanic languages, while English ‘brief’ comes from the Old French descendant of ‘brevis’.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn all about the journey these words made: