(from βραχύς and λόγος, "expression"), in Rhetoric, the expresting any thing in the most concise manner. This, so far as consistent with perspicuity, is a virtue and beauty of style; but if obscurity be the consequence, which is often the case, it becomes a blemish and inexcusable defect.—Quintilian gives an instance of brachylogy from Sallust: *Mithridates corpore ingenti perinde amatus*; "Mithridates, as it were, armed with the hugeness of his stature."

BRACHYPTERA, a term used by Willoughby, to denote those hawks which have their wings so short as not to reach to the end of the tail. Of this kind are the goshawk, sparrow-hawk, &c.