Why is the longest note in the theory lexicon called a 'Breve' which appears to be Italian for 'short'?

See here for an explanation - scroll down to the section on C16th note duration, and then onwards from there. A breve wasn't always the longest note - in fact it still isn't, because in some of the (currently printed) recorder music I play on Early Music courses there are occasionally 'longs' at the ends of sections.

That's an awesome web site Jo which I'd forgotten about so thanks for the link*

Robodoc, if you're interested in notation, have a look too at the thread Why is a minim called a minim, which mentions the history of crotchets and dotted notes as well.






* I think I've commented on this before so I've now put a post-it note in my theory books to remind me to look at this site as well

That is fascinating - I had wondered if Breve actually came from some other root and was only coincidentally the same word as Short in Italian - finding out not only that Breve really is from the Italian for short, but why (which was what I asked) makes me feel oddly happy! Thank you.