köken: From Old French brief, from Latin brevis. A folk etymology derives it as an acronym of Bon, Revenons-En aux Faits, but this is completely inaccurate.
aile: dans les plus brefs délais, en bref
Il lui envoya un bref message de quelques lignes seulement.
köken: Probably a borrowing from Latin brevis (“short”) (compare Spanish breve, where *brieve would be expected if the term were inherited), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus.
short, brief (in time) · short (in space, from one point to another) · short, brief (in length, such as a text or speech)
zıt: 長い
köken: ⟨mi₁zikasi⟩ → /mizikasi/ → /mid͡ʑikaɕi/ → /mid͡ʑikaki/ → /mid͡ʑikai/ From Old Japanese. First attested in c. 759 CE, in the Man'yōshū. Appears to be derived as a compound, but the constituent parts remain obscure. The stem みじか (mijika) is also found in compounds, and in the now-obsolete adjective forms 短(みじか)やか (mijikayaka) and 短(みじか)らか (mijikaraka), indicating that the か (ka) is not the…
aile: 気が短い, 手短
Mostly superseded in modern usage by 低い (hikui, “short (in height)”).
köken: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-der. Proto-Balto-Slavic *kártas Proto-Slavic *kõrtъ Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Slavic *-kъ Proto-Slavic *-ъkъ Proto-Slavic *-ъkъ Proto-Slavic *kortъ̀kъ Old Polish krótki Polish krótki Inherited from Old Polish krótki.
köken: Inherited from Vulgar Latin *excurtus, from Latin curtus (“short”); the initial s- may also have been added later in Romanian, or appeared as a result of the influence of scurta, from excurtare. Compare also Aromanian shcurtu. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-.