short

pronunciation

How to pronounce short in British English: UK [ʃɔːt] word uk audio image

How to pronounce short in American English: US [ʃɔːrt] word us audio image

Noun:

the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed
accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference
the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between 2nd and 3rd base
Verb:

cheat someone by not returning him enough money
create a short-circuit in
Adjective:

primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration
primarily spatial sense; having little length or lacking in length
low in stature; not tall
not sufficient to meet a need
not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices
of speech sounds (especially vowels) of relatively short duration (as e.g. the English vowel sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt')
containing a large amount of shortening; therefore tender and easy to crumble or break into flakes
less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so
used of syllables that are unaccented or of relatively brief duration
(of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range
lacking foresight or scope
unwilling to endure
quickly aroused to anger
most direct
marked by rude or peremptory shortness
Adverb:

quickly and without warning
without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold
clean across
at some point or distance before a goal is reached
so as to interrupt
at a disadvantage
tightly
in a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner

Word Origin

short: short: [OE] Etymologically, something that is short has been ‘cut off’. The word’s immediate Germanic ancestor was *skurtaz, which was descended from an extension of the Indo- European base *sker- ‘cut’ (source also of English score, share, shear, etc). Another version of the base, without the s, was the source of Latin curtus ‘short’, which has produced English curt and curtail, and also supplied the word for ‘short’ in the other Germanic languages (German kurz and Dutch, Swedish, and Danish kort), as well of course as the Romance languages (French court, Italian and Spanish corto, and Romanian scurt).The shirt and the skirt are etymologically ‘short’ garments.=> curt, curtail, score, share, shear, shore, short, skirt

short (adj.): Old English sceort, scort "short, not long, not tall; brief," probably from Proto-Germanic *skurta- (cognates: Old Norse skorta "to be short of," skort "shortness;" Old High German scurz "short"), from PIE root *(s)ker- (1) "to cut," with notion of "something cut off" (cognates: Sanskrit krdhuh "shortened, maimed, small;" Latin curtus "short," cordus "late-born," originally "stunted in growth;" Old Church Slavonic kratuku, Russian korotkij "short;" Lithuanian skurstu "to be stunted," skardus "steep;" Old Irish cert "small," Middle Irish corr "stunted, dwarfish"). Meaning "having an insufficient quantity" is from 1690s. Meaning "rude" is attested from late 14c. Meaning "easily provoked" is from 1590s; perhaps the notion is of being "not long in tolerating." Short fuse in figurative sense of "quick temper" first attested 1968. To fall short is from archery. Short run "relatively brief period of time" is from 1879. Short story first recorded 1877. To make short work of "dispose of quickly" is first attested 1570s. Phrase short and sweet is from 1530s. To be short by the knees (1733) was to be kneeling; to be short by the head (1540s) was to be beheaded.

short (n.): 1580s, the short "the result, the total," from short (adj.). Meaning "electrical short circuit" first recorded 1906 (see short circuit). Meaning "contraction of a name or phrase" is from 1873 (as in for short). Slang meaning "car" is attested from 1897; originally "street car," so called because street cars (or the rides taken in them) were "shorter" than railroad cars.

short (v.): Old English sceortian "to grow short, become short; run short, fail," from the source of short (adj.). Transitive meaning "make short" is from late 12c. Meaning "to short-circuit" is by 1904. Related: Shorted; shorting.

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