Briefs

How to spell briefs

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce briefs

What does briefs mean?

1. nounShort, close-fitting underpants without legs.
2. nounWritten summaries of the facts and arguments of legal cases, prepared for a court.
3. verbGives someone instructions or essential information in advance (third-person singular present).

Briefs in a sentence

• noun

  He packed several pairs of cotton briefs for the trip.

• noun

  The lawyer spent the weekend reviewing the case briefs.

• verb

  Every morning she briefs the team on the day's priorities.

• noun

  The shop had a sale on socks and briefs this week.

• noun

  Both sides filed their briefs ahead of the hearing.

• verb

  The manager always briefs new staff before their first shift.

Where does briefs come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The root comes from the Latin brevis, meaning literally 'short' or 'brief in duration', which also gave us words like 'brevity' and 'abbreviate'. It travelled into English through Old French 'bref' in the medieval period, and by the 1400s a 'brief' had become a short official letter or written summary, since such documents were meant to be concise. The legal sense, a written summary of a case prepared for a court, grew naturally out of that idea of a condensed document. The underwear sense is far more recent, from the twentieth century, and simply describes a short, close-fitting garment. The spelling keeps the 'ie' order that follows the familiar 'i before e' pattern, which is exactly the trap, since the word sounds like it might take 'ei'.

How the word is built

• brief (from Latin brevis: short)
• -s (plural / third-person singular suffix)