English

Noun

brachyology ‎(uncountable)

1. (in discussions of grammar, especially of Biblical grammar) A figure of speech that is an abbreviated expression, for example, the omission of "good" from "good morning!" (resulting in the abbreviated greeting "morning!").
   • 1840, Georg Benedikt Winer, A grammar of the idioms of the Greek language of the New Testament, translated from German to English by J. H. Agnew and O. G. Ebbeke, page 442:

     In the words [...of] Acts x. 39. there might be a brachyology, in case the sense were: we are witnesses of all that he did, of this also, that they put him to death. But such an omission is not necessary.

   • 1900 September, Ed. König, “Psalm cxviii 27b”, in James Hastings (editor), The Expository Times, Volume XI, Number 12, T. & T. Clark (publisher), page 566:

     So also in Ps 118²⁷ the preposition עד might include the verb ‘come,’ which connects itself so naturally with ‘until,’ and a poetical mode of expression, which is naturally disposed to vivid brachyology (cf. Ps 118^{10b, 11b, 12b}), might discover a self-evident point in the circumstance that not the victims themselves but their blood, the precious part of them (Lv 17¹¹), is at last to touch the alter-horns.

   • 1870, Philip Schaff (translator) in John Peter Lange, A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: critical, doctrinal, and homiletical, volume 7, page 68:

     The only trouble is with "over all things;" what is His relation to them? Evidently that of Head also. No other view is admissible exegetically; the question becoming thus a purely grammatical one: Shall we accept a brachyology and understand a second κεφαλην before τη εκκλησια (MEYER, STIER, HODGE approvingly): "gave Him the Head over all things (to be the Head) to the church," or [...]

   • 2000, David Arthur deSilva, Perseverance in gratitude: a socio-rhetorical commentary on the Epistle "to the Hebrews", page 468:

     The author employs a brachyology in the last phrase: the hearers of the phrase "than Abel" [...] will be able to fill this out as "than the blood of Abel" from the mention of "blood speaking" [...] in the preceding phrase.

   • 2001, Sang-Won (Aaron) Son, Corporate elements in Pauline anthropology: a study of the selected terms, idioms, and concepts in the lighy of Paul's usage and background, page 35,

     The expression "being-in-Christ" is, therefore, according to Schweitzer, "merely a brachyology for being partakers in the Mystical Body of Christ."

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