breve  (br ĕv, br ēv)
Share:
n.1. A symbol ( ˘ ) placed over a vowel to show that it has a short sound. 2. A curved mark used to indicate a short or unstressed syllable of verse. 3. Music A note equivalent to two whole notes.
[Middle English, written communication, from Old French, from Medieval Latin, short syllable, from Latin, neuter of brevis, short; see BRIEF.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
This website is best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. Some characters in pronunciations and etymologies cannot be displayed properly in Internet Explorer.