Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Abbreviation

Abbreviation ({not transcribed}) , noun

[Late Latin abbreviatio: compare French abbréviation.]

1.
The act of shortening, or reducing.
2.
The result of abbreviating; an abridgment. — Tylor
3.
The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.
4.
(Music) One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers. — Moore