ABB 



ABC 



ABBOTSrBROMLEY, in Geography, a town of Slaf- 

 fordfliire, with a market on Tucfday. W. long, i^ 2'. N. 

 lat. 5.-5'. 



ABBOTSBURY, a fmall town in DorfctHiire, wiih a 

 market on I'hurfday. W. long, i '^ 17'. N. lat. 50" 40'. 

 The abbey near this town was founded by a Nonnan lady 

 about the year 1026; and Edward the Confeifor and William 

 the Conqueror were benefatiors to it. 



ABBOTS-CASTLE, or Apewood-Castlf., an old 

 fortification, in StafFordfhircjfeven miles from Wolverliampton, 

 on tlte north fide of the road from Shvewfbury to London, 

 fituatcd on a lofty round proniontoiy, and a lleep ridge of hills, 

 which extend a mile in length, and are fuppofed to have been 

 one continued fortification, and a work of the ancient Britons. 



ABBOTS-LANGLEY, a village in Herts, four miles 

 from St. Albans, famous as the biitli-place of pope Adrian 

 IV. 



ABBREVIATE of AnjunicATioN, in Scots law, an 

 abftraft or abridgment of a decreet of adjudication, which is 

 recorded in a regiiler kept for that purpofc. 



ABBREVIATION, or Abbreviature, a contradion 

 of a word, or palFage, made by dioppiag fome of the letters, 

 or by fubftituting certain marks, or charatlers, in their 

 place. 



A late ingenious writer on the fubjeft of grammar dillri- 

 butes the paits of fpeech into words, necefiary for the com- 

 munication of our thoughts, which are the notm and verb, 

 and abbreviations, employed for the fake of difpatch. Thefe 

 latter, he lays, are in the ftrift fenfe of the term, parts of 

 fpeech, becaufe they are all ufeful in language, and each has 

 a different manner of fignification. He inclines, however, 

 to allow that rank only to the neceffary words ; and to in- 

 clude all the others, which are not neceffary to fpeech, but 

 merely fubftitutes of the iirft fort, under the title of abbre- 

 viations. V/ords, he fays, have been called -wmged, whence 

 the title of this work, v'i%. etek irlt^osvla ; and they well de- 

 fen'e that name, when their abbreviations are compared with 

 the progrefs which fpeech could make without thefe inven- 

 tiong ; but compared with the rapidity of thought, they have 

 not the fmallefl claim to that title, y^blrevuiticns are em- 

 ployed in language three \vays ; in terms, in forts of words, 

 and in conftrutlion. Mr. Locke's Effay is the belt guide 

 to the firil ; and the authors who have given particular ex- 

 planations of the lafl are numberlefs ; the provmce of this au- 

 thor is confined to the fecund clafs of Mbreviations. See 

 EnEA nXEPOENTA ; or, The Divcrfions of Puiley, c. I. 

 p. 39. &c. 



Lawyers, phyficians, &c. ufe abundance of abbreviatures ; 

 partly for the fake of expedition, and partly for that of 

 myftery. A lift of the principal ahbrevialures, in the feveral 

 arts and faculties, fee under Character. 



Of all people, the Rabbins are the mofl remarkable for 

 this praftice ; fo tliat their writings are unintelligible, with- 

 out an explanation of the Hebrew abbreviatures. The Jewifh 

 authors and copyiits do not content themfelves to abbreviate 

 words, like the Greeks and LatinSi by retrenching fome of 

 the letters, or fyllables thereof; but they frequently take 

 away all except the initial letters. Thus, "1 ftands for rab- 

 bi, and Jif for ^)*, 'i^^^, or °1?3{<> according to the place 

 in which it is found. 



But ftill furtiier, they frequently take the initial letters of 

 feveral fucceeding words, join them together, and adding 

 vowels to them, make a barbarous fort of word, reprefenta- 

 tive of all the words thus abridged. Thus, Rabbi Schelemoh 

 yarcbi, in the jargon of Hebrew abbreviatures, is called 

 Raji ; and Rabbi Mofcs ben Maiemott, is Rambam. Mercerus, 

 David de Pomis, Schindlcr, Bustorf, 5ic. have given expli- 



cations of fuch abbrniiatures. The mod copious collc('lior) 

 of Roman abbreviatures, is that of Sertorius Urfatus : Ser- 

 torii UrJ'ati, equitis, tie notis Romanorum commcniiirius. 



Abbreviation iif Fradhms, \n j1rtihin:tic mx^ ytl^dra, 

 IS the reduftion of them to lov.er terms. See Fractiok. 



ABBREVIATOR, in a general fenfe, a perfon who 

 abridges any large book into a more narrow compafs. 



Abbreviator is more particularly ufed for an officer in 

 the court of Rome, appointed an alliilant to the vice-chan- 

 cellor, for drawing up the pope's briefs, and reducing peli- 

 tions, when granted by the pontiiT, into proper form, for 

 being converted into bulls. 



The Abbnvialors are fuppofed by Ciampini, in his two 

 volumes on their inilitution, oilice, S:c. to be the fucceffora 

 cither of the cancellarii in the imperial houfhold, or of the 

 feven notarii, faid to have been placed by pope Clement I. 

 in the fcven quarters of Rome, to write down the aels of the 

 martyrs within their feveral diilrids. 



The abbreviators form a college of feventy-two perfons, 

 diN-idcd into two ranks ; one called atbrevialorc: de parco ma- 

 jorc, who are twelve in number, all prelates ; the other, al- 

 breviatores de parco minore, called alfo examinaton:, who may 

 be lay-men. 



ABBS HEAD (St.), in Geography, a promontory of 

 Berwicklhire in Scotland, in the fouthcm extremity of tlie 

 Fritli of Forth. N. lat. 55° 55'. W. long. 1°. 51^/. 



ABBT, Thomas, in Biography, v.'as born in 1 7 ^8, at Ulm, 

 anddiedin i766,at Biickeberg,a privy-counfellor of theCouut 

 of Schaumburg-Lippe. Befides his tranflation of Sallufl intii 

 Gennan, he alfo publilhed a volume " concerning Merit," 

 and another " concerning Death for one's country," which 

 are well eilecmed. He is one of the earlieft German wri- 

 ters, who retain a clalTical rank, and would have probably 

 excelled as anhiilorian, if his lile had been prolonged. Gen. 

 Biog. 



ABBTENAU, in Geography, a market town in the arch- 

 bilhoprick of Salzburg, about 20 miles S. E. of the city 

 of Salzburg. N. lat. 47° 32'. E. long. 12° 56'. 



ABBUTALS. See Abbuttals. 



ABCEDARY, Abcedarian, or Abecedarian, is 

 fometimes applied to compofitions whofe parts are difpofed 

 in the order of the letters of the alphabet. 



In this fenfe abcedarian is fynonymous with alphabetical. 

 Thus we meet with abcedarian pfalms, lamentations, prayers, 

 and the like ; chiefly among Hebrew writers ; which 

 makes it probable they were the inventors of this fpecies of 

 compofition. 



This is the firft and mofi manifeft indication of verfe in 

 the Hebrew poetical books. Poems of this kind con lift of 

 22 lines, or fyilems of lines, or periods, or ftanzas, accord- 

 ing to the number of the letters in >;he alphabet ; and every 

 line, orftanza, begins with each letter in its order. Tliis 

 artificial contrivance was intended for the affiftance of the 

 memory, and was chiefly employed in fubjecks of common 

 ufe, as maxims of morality and fonns of devotion. There 

 are ftill extant in the books of the Old Teftament twelve of 

 thefe poems, viz. Pfalms xxv. xxxiv. xxxvii. cxi. cxii. cxix. 

 cxlv. Prov. xxxi. 10—31. Lament, i. ii. iii. iv. Three of 

 thefe, viz. Pf. cxi. cxii. Lam. iii. are perfedly alphabetical, 

 in which every line is marked by its initial letter ; in the 

 other nine every ftanza only is fo diftinguilhed. With re- 

 fpeft to the three fonner it may be obferved, that the whole 

 poctn is diftributed into ftanzas ; two of them, viz. Pf. cxi. 

 cxii. into ten ftanzas each, all of two hnes, except the two 

 laft ftanzas in each, whicli are of three lines ; and the third, 

 viz. Lam. iii. confifts of twenty-two ftanza3,of three lines, the 

 initial letter of every ftanza being alfo the initial letter of 



every 



