shorthand
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃɔːthænd/
ipa: /ˈʃɔɹthænd/
Forms: form: shorthands
form: short hand
form: short-hand
Etymology: The noun is derived from short + hand (“handwriting; style of penmanship”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: There is a Notion prevails among many People, to yͤ prejudice of all kinds of Short-hand; which is this. That when a Person sets down a Memorandum in his pocket Book in Short-hand, it is lost, in caſe of Death or any other accident, to yͤ rest of yͤ World, though it may contain things of great Consequence to other People. [...] I affirm, [...] that if any Person makes use of my long Short hand, which he will certainly do, in caſe he deſigns that what he writes should be read by another Person, it will be as legible to any one acquainted with this Art, as if it was writ in Round Hand.
ref: 1747 November 30, Aulay Macaulay, “Advertisement”, in Polygraphy or Short-hand Made Easy to the Meanest Capacity: Being an Universal Character Fitted to All Languages: […], London: Printed for the author, […] also sold by T[homas] Osborne, […], →OCLC, page IV:
text: All ſhort Hands are ſubject to Ambiguity; for there being but 8 Marks to repreſent 24 Letters, and thoſe 8 being uſed for 8 of them in the Short Hand Alphabets, the other Letters muſt be deſcribed by Characters compounded of theſe 8.
ref: 1748 May 26, Samuel Jeake, “XIV. The Elements of a Short Hand.”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XLV, number 487, London: Printed for C. Davis, […], printer to the Royal Society, →OCLC, page 348:
text: A is denoted by a dot at the top of the Short-hand line; [...] The vowel a, in Short-hand, is used for the article a, or ah; [...]
ref: 1796, T[homas] M[olineux], “On the Vowels”, in An Abridgement of Mr. Byrom’s Universal English Short-hand; […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for the editor; and sold by H. Lowndes, […], →OCLC, 1st part:
text: [...] I was soon convinced, that our articles a an the should also be omitted: especially as the two former are comparatively infrequent, and the latter a perpetual incumbrance in other Short-hands.
ref: 1818, Edward Lawson, “General Plan”, in Chancery and Court-hand Explained, with an Easy, Rapid, and Distinct Short Hand, London: Printed by I. Colles, […]; for J[oseph] Butterworth, […], →OCLC, page 1:
text: In writing shorthand words are always to be spelled as they are sounded, and without any regard to orthography.
ref: 1821, P[eregrine] Bingham [the Younger], “On Shorthand Spelling and Punctuation, and on the Effect of the Position of Characters According to this System”, in A System of Shorthand on the Principle of the Association of Ideas, London: Printed by J[oseph] Butterworth and Son, […], →OCLC, section I, page 7:
text: A good Short-hand must be easy, swift, and legible.
ref: 1874, W. E. Scovil, A Short-hand Legible as the Plainest Writing, and Requiring No Teacher but the Book. With a Simplified System of Verbatim Reporting, 6th American edition, New York, N.Y.: W. E. Scovil, Jr., […], →OCLC, part I (Stenography), page 1:
text: Now, if you are wise, and would shorthand acquire, / Just throw your old text-books straight into the fire. / Then take up Light-Line—in the matter of speed, / There's nothing can beat it—of this take good heed. / 'Tis most easy to learn, to read and in fine— / No shorthand can equal GREGG'S MODERN LIGHT-LINE.
ref: 1898, Frank Rutherford, “A Song of Light-line”, in John Robert Gregg, Gregg’s Shorthand: A Light Line Phonography for the Million, 7th American edition, Chicago, Ill.: Published by the author […], →OCLC, page 120:
text: The origin of shorthand writing has been variously attributed to the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. It is not unlikely that some form of stenography, or method of (comparatively) rapid writing by means of signs or characters briefer than those of the script ordinarily in use, was developed independently among the penmen or scribes of many early nations. [...] But the natural eagerness of stenographers to claim great antiquity for their art has sometimes tempted them to cite as references to shorthand passages which do not necessarily bear any such meaning.
ref: 1918, Isaac Pitman, A History of Shorthand, 4th edition, London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd. […], →OCLC, page 1:
text: Right away you say that nobody learns how to read shorthand. People who want to know shorthand learn how to write it; the reading of it comes by the way.
ref: 1986, Rudolf Flesch, “A Letter to Johnny’s Mother”, in Why Johnny Can’t Read – and What You can Do about It, 1st Perennial Library edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, publishers, →ISBN, page 3:
synonyms: word: brachygraphy
word: stenography
word: phonography
antonyms: longhand
glosses: A rough and rapid method of writing by substituting symbols for letters, words, etc.
examples: text: The jargon becomes a shorthand for these advanced concepts.
text: It is important to recall that the European construct of "the Indian" and the abstraction designated as "Native American religion" are both artificial labels suggesting a unity that is nowhere to be found. When we borrow such shorthands, we are really referring to the Arapaho, Blackfeet, Chumash, Delaware, Eskimo, Flathead, Ghost Dancers, Hopi, Iowa—and so on through the rest of the alphabet right to the Yuma and Zuni.
ref: 2004, Edwin S[cott] Gaustad, Leigh E. Schmidt, “Beginnings”, in The Religious History of America, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins, →ISBN, part I (Religion in the Colonial Era), page 6:
text: Trust me, he's Pakistani, because that's the average numpty's shorthand for Muslim.
ref: 2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 119:
text: You shouldn't use the shorthand PHP tags (<? ?>) in your code. The reason for this is that shorthand PHP tags must be enabled on your server before they will function. Many hosting configurations have this feature disabled by default, which means your plugin would immediately break when activated in WordPress.
ref: 2011, Brad Williams, Ozh Richard, Justin Tadlock, “Plugin Foundation”, in Professional WordPress Plugin Development (Wrox Professional Guides), Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley, →ISBN, page 26:
text: Her [Kate Spade's] name became a shorthand for the cute, clever bags that were an instant hit with cosmopolitan women in the early stages of their careers and, later, young girls – status symbols of a more attainable, all-American sort than a Fendi clutch or Chanel bag.
ref: 2018 June 5, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman, Matthew Schneier, “Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is dead at 55”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2018:
glosses: Any brief or shortened way of saying or doing something.
Derived terms: Gregg Shorthand
Gregg shorthand
shorthander
shorthand typist