Briefer

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹiːfə/

Definitions

1. Indicating something expressed with fewer words or of shorter duration than another
2. Describing a statement or account that is more condensed and less detailed than others
3. Used to show that something is succinct or lasts less time compared to something else

Etymology: The word "briefer" is simply "brief" with the comparative suffix "-er" attached, and the adjective "brief" is itself a long journey from Latin. It came into English through Old French "bref" and Middle English "bref", ultimately from Latin "brevis", meaning "short". Latin "brevis" traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning something like "to be short or small", the same ancestry that gives many English words about shortness and smallness. The comparative ending is older than the borrowed stem. The "-er" in "briefer" descends from Old English "-ra", a comparative marker that English has used for well over a thousand years, long before the Latin adjective arrived through French. So the word is a hybrid: a Latin root carrying a native Germanic ending.

Synonyms: summarizer, condensed version, abstract

Antonyms: longer, prolonged