ABBREVIATION, or ABBREVIATURE, a contraction of a word or passage, made by dropping some of the letters, or by substituting certain marks or characters in their place. A late philosophical writer on grammar divides the parts of speech into words which are necessary for the communication of thought, as the noun and verb, and abbreviations which are employed for the sake of dispatch. The latter, strictly speaking, are also parts of speech, because they are all useful in language, and each has a different manner of signification. Mr Tooke, however, seems to allow that rank only to the necessary words, and to consider all others as merely substitutes of the first sort, under the title of abbreviations. They are employed in language in three ways—in terms, in sorts of words, and in construction. Mr Locke in his Essay on the Human Understanding treats of the first class; numerous authors have written on the last; and for the second class of abbreviations, see the work of Mr Tooke entitled Diversions of Purley. Lawyers, physicians, &c. use many abbreviations, for the sake of expedition. But the Rabbis are the most remarkable for this practice, so that their writings are unintelligible without the Hebrew abbreviations. The Jewish authors and copyists do not content themselves with abbreviating words like the Greeks and Latins, by retrenching some of the letters or syllables; they frequently take away all but the initial letters. They even take the initials of several succeeding words, join them together, and, adding vowels to them, make a sort of barbarous words, representative of all those which they have thus abridged. Thus, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, in their abbreviation, is Rambam, &c.
The following ABBREVIATIONS are of most frequent occurrence in the Writings and Inscriptions of the Romans.
AB. Abdicavit.
AB. AUG. M. P. XXXXI. Ab Augusta millia passuum quadraginta unum.
AB. AUGUSTOB. M. P. X. Ab Augustobriga millia passuum decem.
ABN. Abnepos.
AB. U. C. Ab urbe condita.
A. CAMB. M. P. XI. A Camboduno millia passuum undecim.
A. COMPL. XIII. A Compluto quatuordecim.
A. C. P. VI. A capite vel ad caput pedes sex.
A. D. Ante diem.
ADJECT. H-S. IX. . Adjectis sestertiis novem mille.
ADN. Adnepos.
ADQ. Adquiescit, vel adquisita pro acquisita.
ÆD. II. Π. VIR. II. Ædilis iterum, duumvir iterum.
ÆD. II. VIR. QUINQ. Ædilis duumvir quinquennalis.
ÆD. Q. II. VIR. Ædilis quinquennalis duumvir.
ÆL. Ælius, Ælia.
ÆM. vel AIM. Æmilius, Æmilia.
A. G. Animo grato, vel Aulus Gellius.
AG. Ager, vel Agrippa.
A. K. Ante kalendas.