a. [a. Anglo-F. *compendious = OF. compendieux, ad. L. compendiōs-us advantageous, abridged, brief, f. compendi-um: see below and -OUS.]
1. Containing the substance within small compass, concise, succinct, summary; comprehensive though brief; esp. of literary works; also of their authors.
1388. Wyclif, Pref. Ep. Jerome, 73. Seuen epistlis, as wel goostly and mystik as compendiouse.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 75. Þe newe lawe, compendiosar & more complet & more profitablar þan ani oþer lawe.
c. 1425. Metr. Pref. Hampole’s Psalter, 43. Compendyous short gode & profetebul To mannys soule.
c. 1460. Stans Puer ad Mensam, 94, in Rel. Ant., I. 158. Thof that thu be compendious of sentence.
c. 1510. Barclay, Mirr. Gd. Mann. (1570), A j. This litle treatise in stile compendious.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 82. Thies men, in matters of Diuinitie, openlie pretend a great knowledge, and haue priuately to them selues, a verie compendious vnderstanding of all, which neuertheles they will vtter when and where they liste.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. vi. § 1. Man … an extract or compendious image of the world.
1677. Hale, Contempl., II. 9. It is a Compendious Prayer, and contains much in little.
1774. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, III. 8. A compendious analysis of the chapters which form this … compilation.
1842. Arnold, Lect. Mod. Hist., ii. (1878), 136. Any cheap or compendious helps for the study.
† 2. Of a way, method, or process: That saves time or space, expeditious, not circuitous, direct; summary. Obs.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), viii. 28. He þat will go first to Babilon By anoþer way mare compendious þan I hafe tald off.
1602. Carew, Cornwall (1723), 143. A way not so safe as compendious, when the tyde is out.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iv. I. v. (1676), 412/1. I think the most compendious cure for some of them at least, had been in Bedlam.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, IV. iii. 58. This compendious passage betwixt Egypt and Canaan.
a. 1688. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Poems (1775), 141. The compendious art to lye and cheat.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 105. A compendious way for thickning of Copses.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 504. The most compendious passage to the shades below.
† b. Economical. Obs. Cf. COMPENDIUM 3.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., IV. ii. 59. The divell avoideth superfluitie as much as he may…. If the divell were so compendious, what should he need to use such circumstances … as to make, [etc.].
† c. Profitable. Obs.–0
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Compendious, short, profitable.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Compendious, very profitable.
