用很少的字講完
把「短」這把尺放在字數上量。
noun · C1
The quality of saying or writing something in very few words.
簡潔
You can think of brevity as the word 'short' turned into a noun. Something could have gone on longer, and it does not. English then measures that shortness two ways: how many words a thing takes, and how much time it lasts.
Wiktionary records brevity as brief + -ity, from Latin brevis 'short' — so the noun is literally 'the shortness of a thing'.
這份資料記載 brevity 由 brief(短)加 -ity(…的性質)構成,更早來自拉丁文 brevis「短」。所以這個字從字面上就是「短的那個性質」,兩個意思都直接從這裡出來。
Wiktionary 'brevity' etymology supplied in the evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:960901728:15706)
Two branches
用很少的字講完
把「短」這把尺放在字數上量。
noun · C1
The quality of saying or writing something in very few words.
簡潔
只持續一下子
同一把「短」的尺,這次量的是時間。
noun · C1
The quality of lasting only a short time.
短暫