also 7 -er. [a. L. abbreviātor, n. of agent f. abbreviā-re to shorten; cf. Fr. abréviateur.]
1. One who abbreviates, abridges, or shortens.
1615. Helkiah Crooke, Body of Man, 206. Oribasius, the great abreuiater of antiquity.
1779. Gibbon, Misc. Wks. (1814), IV. 565. The opinion which attributes the last-mentioned passage to the abbreviator, rather than to the original historian.
1860. Adler, Prov. Poet., xiii. 286. Outlines in which the arid hand of the abbreviator does not become apparent.
2. spec. ‘An officer in the court of Rome, appointed as assistant to the vice-chancellor for drawing up the pope’s briefs, and reducing petitions, when granted, into proper form for being converted into bulls.’ Chambers, 1751.
1532. Addr. from Convoc., in Strype, Mem. Ref., v. 481. The writers, abbreviators, and registers of the letters, minutes, and bulls.
1611. Cotgr., Abbreuiateur, An abbreuiator; a maker of breefs, or of writs.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp. The earliest mention made of Abbreviators in the papal court, is in one of the extravagantes of pope John XXII. in 1317…. The Abbreviators at present make a college of seventy-two persons, divided into two parks or ranks.
† 3. A school of physicians so named. Obs.
1605. Timme, Quersitanus, Pref. v. Among Physitians there are Empericks, Dogmaticks, Methodici or Abbreviators, and Paracelsians.
