You can think of brevity as the word 'short' turned into a noun. Something could have gone on longer, and it does not. English then measures that shortness two ways: how many words a thing takes, and how much time it lasts.
brevity 可以想成把「短」這個感覺變成一個名詞。有一件事本來可以拉得更長，結果沒有。英文再拿兩把尺去量這個「短」：一把量字數，一把量時間。所以同一個字，既能說一封信寫得很精簡，也能說一次探訪短得讓人來不及好好聊天。
From the word’s history
Wiktionary records brevity as brief + -ity, from Latin brevis 'short' — so the noun is literally 'the shortness of a thing'.
這份資料記載 brevity 由 brief（短）加 -ity（…的性質）構成，更早來自拉丁文 brevis「短」。所以這個字從字面上就是「短的那個性質」，兩個意思都直接從這裡出來。
Wiktionary 'brevity' etymology supplied in the evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:960901728:15706)
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