shorthand
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃɔːthænd/
ipa: /ˈʃɔɹthænd/
Forms: form: shorthands
form: shorthanding
form: shorthanded
form: shorthanded
Etymology: The noun is derived from short + hand (“handwriting; style of penmanship”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: All the time she'd pretended to be fiddling with her purse over there behind the man, she'd been shorthanding him down—every word, every quotation, every date, every name.
ref: 1947, Bill [i.e., Elijah William] Cunningham, The Pearl of Her Sex, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 23:
text: Most everything is in the safe on digital media, but there were some sessions he didn't record. He'd just shorthanded his notes during and after the sessions. I never learned shorthand, so there's no way I could decipher most of it, if you know what I mean.
ref: 2012, J. L. Dobias, chapter 19, in Cripple Mode: Hot Electric, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, pages 383–384:
glosses: To render (spoken or written words) into shorthand.
examples: text: It seems to me, however one looks at it—and I am torpedoing, "shorthanding", my arguments, though they can be developed at great length—that there is no military case for a large standing Army, and I pick out three arguments that I think are tremendously important which I should like the Minister to answer, even though he may reject them.
ref: 1957 November 7, George Brown, “Queen’s Speech: Debate on the Address”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons Official Report (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 577, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, columns 323–324:
text: By "home video" I mean to shorthand the practice of viewing at home texts that come to us via a range of sources and formats, such as cable/satellite and pay-per-view television, mail order services (that send in the mail gay-related videotapes to far-flung subscribers), Web-based media, videotapes, laser discs, and dvds.
ref: 2003, Amy Villarejo, “Conclusion: Straight to Video”, in Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire, Durham, N.C.; London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 191:
text: He liked [John Dann] MacDonald's books: You could always tell who the villainesses were because the narrator made a point of noting they had fat asses. It was as good a way as any to shorthand the world, he thought.
ref: 2005 June, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006, →ISBN:
text: [Dan] Brown shorthands the argument that Freemasonry really is inclusive through the personas and characters of Katherine Solomon and Warren Bellamy.
ref: 2009 (indicated as 2010), Daniel Burstein, Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide: Unlock the Mysteries and History Found in The Da Vinci code Sequel, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 40:
text: She watched as Trooper pulled out a pack of cigarettes and fumbled in his pocket for a lighter, an expensive-looking Zippo with the number 88 engraved on the front plate – each eight standing for the eighth letter of the alphabet, the two Hs together shorthanding the phrase 'Heil Hitler'.
ref: 2011, Sean Black, chapter 27, in Deadlock: A Ryan Lock Thriller, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers, →ISBN, pages 155–156:
text: I refer to processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization across the globe at various levels, such as decentralized business, frontier fluidity, increased and multifarious transnational movement, recast urban space and blended cultures, in short all that is often shorthanded in the term globalization.
ref: 2012, Necati Polat, “Integration”, in International Relations, Meaning and Mimesis (Interventions), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page viii:
glosses: To use a brief or shortened way of saying or doing something.
examples: text: Steele nodded and settled on the chesterfield. He regarded Betty seriously, her notebook poised on the table beside her as she reclined in her chair. [...] "I remember," Betty acknowledged, and went on shorthanding.
ref: 1953, Vargo Statten [pseudonym; John Russell Fearn], chapter 1, in Pioneer 1990 (Scion Science Fiction), London: Scion, →OCLC; republished London: Gateway, 2015, →ISBN:
glosses: To write in shorthand.