Where does “briefer” come from?
I need to work through this chain carefully, but I notice there's a significant problem: this etymology chain doesn't make coherent sense for "briefer" in English. The chain shows: - English brief ← Chinese 兒 ← Old French -er ← Latin -are ← Latin -arius ← Proto-Indo-European mréǵʰus ← Proto-Italic -os This appears to trace the suffix "-er" (as in "one who briefs") back through Romance languages, but it doesn't account for how "brief" itself entered English, and the chain seems to conflate the word "brief" with the suffix "-er." A coherent etymology for "briefer" should either: 1. Show how "brief" (adj.) + "-er" (suffix) → "briefer" (comparative adjective), or 2. Show how "brief" (verb) +
briefer (English): comparative form of brief: more brief; One who...
Definitions
- comparative form of brief: more brief; One who...
Ancestry of “briefer”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -er | A person or thing that does an action indicated... |
| 2 | Middle English | -er | agentive suffix; agent noun suffix |
| 3 | Old French | -er | Alternative form of -ier, verbal suffix;... |
| 4 | Latin | -āre | first conjugation |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -āō | Forms primarily denominative verbs |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -eh₂yéti | Creates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 9 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |