Definition
A breviate is a condensed written summary, abstract, or epitome of a longer document. In English legal and parliamentary practice, the term carries two closely related but distinct applications:
1. Parliamentary breviate: A short statement of contents accompanying a bill in Parliament — essentially a summary document prepared to give legislators or officials a condensed account of the bill's substance without requiring review of the full text.
2. General legal breviate: Any abstract, epitome, or short extract of a writing, paper, or instrument. In this sense it functions as a synonym for "brief" in its older, non-advocacy meaning — a condensed rendering of a document's essential contents.
A third usage, appearing in both common and legal literature, treats breviate as a near-synonym for a lawyer's brief, though this usage is marked as rare even in historical sources.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A short account, brief statement, summary, abridgement, or précis; a brief missive or dispatch; a note; a lawyer's brief.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A short compend; a summary; a brief statement. Also, rarely, a lawyer's brief.
The gap between common and legal usage is narrow but worth noting. In ordinary historical English, breviate could describe any summary document, including informal notes and dispatches. In legal and parliamentary contexts, it acquired a more specific function: a formal précis accompanying or substituting for a longer legal instrument, particularly a parliamentary bill. The word has largely fallen out of active legal use, making it a term researchers encounter in historical sources rather than modern practice.
Common Confusion
Breviate and brief overlap substantially in historical usage, and some sources treat them as interchangeable. They are not identical. A brief in its modern legal sense refers specifically to an advocacy document submitted to a court by counsel. A breviate, by contrast, is an abstract or condensed account of a document — a descriptive or summarizing instrument rather than an argumentative one. The parliamentary breviate in particular has no equivalent in the modern brief. Researchers encountering "breviate" in older texts should resist substituting "brief" in its contemporary sense.
Why It Matters in Research
Breviate is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in historical sources — English legal texts, parliamentary records, and treatises predating the twentieth century. Several navigational points matter:
First, the parliamentary usage is the most distinctively legal application and the one least likely to appear in American sources. Researchers working in British parliamentary history or English legislative procedure will find breviate used as a technical term for the summary document accompanying a bill; American legal literature uses the term rarely if at all in this sense.
Second, the general sense of breviate as "abstract or epitome" appears in English common law materials across several centuries and may surface in case records, chancery documents, or equity pleadings where a party submitted a condensed account of a prior writing. Burrill cites 12 Mod. 560 and Hob. 114 in this connection, suggesting the term had recognized legal standing in English courts.
Third, the word's near-total disappearance from modern legal vocabulary means that when it appears in a corpus document, it almost certainly signals historical material — likely English, likely pre-twentieth century. It can function as a useful dating and provenance signal.
Fourth, the corruption or garbled text visible in the Rapalje & Lawrence entry ("for the common ease and a writing") is an artifact of source digitization, not a substantive legal distinction. Researchers should treat that entry as a damaged transcription of the standard definition: an abstract or epitome of a writing; a brief.
Historical Dictionary Support
All five historical dictionaries converge on the core definition: a breviate is an abstract, epitome, or brief summary of a writing. The agreement across Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, Burrill's, and Rapalje & Lawrence is essentially complete on this point, with all citing Holthouse as the common authority.
Burrill adds the most substantive detail, distinguishing between the breviate as an abstract or epitome (citing 12 Mod. 560) and the breviate as a short extract or copy of a paper or writing (citing Hob. 114). This suggests the term had some flexibility in practice — it could describe a true condensation or a partial reproduction.
Black's (both editions) alone introduces the parliamentary application explicitly: "a short statement of contents, accompanying a bill in parliament." This is a meaningful addition absent from Bouvier's and Burrill's entries, and it reflects the term's most distinctively legal (as opposed to generally literary) use.
Webster's 1913 confirms that the word existed in general English with essentially the same meaning, and flags the lawyer's brief sense as rare ("R."), a caution that holds in the legal dictionaries as well — none of the historical legal sources elevate that usage above secondary status.
Jurisdictional Note
Breviate as a parliamentary term is an English legal concept with no direct American equivalent. American legal sources rarely use the term. Researchers working exclusively in American legal materials are unlikely to encounter it outside of English law treatises imported into early American practice.