(from βραχύς and λόγος "expression"), in Rhetoric, the expressing 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 armatus*; "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 goss-hawk, sparrow-hawk, &c.