ABBREVIATIONS are contrivances in writing for saving time and space. They are of two kinds, consisting either in the omission of some letters, or words, or in the sub st itntion of some arbitrary sign. In the earliest times, when uncial or lapidary characters were used, abbreviations by omission prevailed, such as we find on the inscriptions on monuments, coins, etc. In these the initial letter is often put instead of the whole word, as M. for Marcus, F. for Filius. It was after the small Greek and Roman letters had been invented by transcribers for facilitating their work, that signs of abbreviation, or characters representing double consonants, syllables, and whole words, came into use. Greek manuscripts abound with such signs, and often only one that has expressly studied Greek palaeography can make them out. From the manuscripts they passed into the >ally printed editions of Greek books, and it is only recently that they have quite disap peared. Among the Romans, signs of abbreviation were called notes, and professed scribes who employed them were notarii. To such an extent was the system carried, that L. Annteus Seneca collected and classified 5000 abbreviations. The same practice has prevailed in all languages, but nowhere - more than in the rabbinical •writings.—The abbreviations used by the ancient Romans were continued and increased in the middle ages. They occur in inscriptions, manuscripts, and legal documents; and the practice continued in these last long after the invention of printing had made it unnecessary in books. Ail act of parliament was passed in the reign of George 1L, forbidding the use of abbreviations in legal documents. Owing to these abbreviations, the deciphering of
old writings requires special study and training, and forms a separate science called diplomatics (q.v.), on which numerous treatises have been written. Tassin's Nouveau Trude de Diplonudique (6 vols., Par. 1750-63) contains, in the third volume, an exposition of Roman abbreviations. Other works on the subject are—Gatterer's Abria der Digo matik (2 vols., Gott. 1798); Pertz's Sehriftiqfeln (4 Nos., llanuov. 1846); and Kopp'S Pakeograpldea Critica (4 Manh. 1817-29).—ln ordinary writing and printing few abbreviations are now employed. The sign &, originally an abbreviation for the Lat. ct, " and," is perhaps the only one of the arbitrary kind still to be met with. It does not stand properly for a word, for it is used in different languages, but for an idea, and is as much a symbol as +. The abbreviations by using the initials of Latin words that are still in use are chiefly confined to titles, dates, and a few phrases; as M.A. (nogister artiunt), Master of Arts; A.D. ((limo doinim), in the year of our Lord; e.g. (exempli, for example. Many are now formed from English words in the same way; as F.G.S., Fellow of the Geological Society; B.C.,' before Christ.—Most of the sciences and arts have sets of signs of abbreviations, or symbols, peculiar to themselves. These are of great use both for brevity and clearness. See CHEMICAL SYMBOLS, etc.