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An abbreviation (from Latin brevis "short") is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word "abbreviation" can itself be represented by the abbreviation "abbr." or "abbrev." Abbreviation has been used as long as phonetic script existed, in some senses actually being more common in early literacy, where spelling out a whole word was often avoided, initial letters commonly being used to represent words in specific application. By classical Greece and Rome, the reduction of words to single letters was still normal, but no longer the default. The mathematician Brahmagupta had begun using abbreviations for unknowns by the 7th century.[1] He employed abbreviations for for multiple unknowns occurring in one complex problem.[1] Brahmagupta also managed to use abbreviations for square roots and cube roots.[1] An increase in literacy has, historically, sometimes spawned a trend toward abbreviation. The standardization of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included such a growth in the use of abbreviation[2]. At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, specific phoneme sets like "er" were dropped from words and replaced with ?, like "mast?" instead of "master" or exac?bate instead of "exacerbate". While this seems trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce their copy time. An example from the Oxford university Register, 1503 Mast? subwarden? y ?mede me to you. And wher? y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differr? thelection? ov? to quidena? tinitatis y have be thought me syn? that itt woll be then? a bowte mydsom?.
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