Short

How to spell short

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce short

What does short mean?

1. adjectiveMeasuring a small length, height, distance, or duration.
2. verbTo sell shares or assets that one does not yet own, betting that the price will fall.
3. nounA fault in which an electrical current follows an unintended low-resistance path; a short circuit.

Short in a sentence

• adjective

  The meeting was surprisingly short, lasting only ten minutes.

• verb

  The fund decided to short the stock before the earnings report.

• noun

  The electrician traced the short to a frayed wire behind the wall.

• adjective

  He chose the short route home to avoid the traffic.

• verb

  Traders who short the market profit when prices collapse.

• noun

  A short in the wiring caused the whole panel to trip.

Where does short come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English sceort, meaning 'not long' or 'cut off', which in turn goes back to a Germanic root tied to the idea of being clipped or cut. That same notion of cutting links it distantly to the Latin curtus, meaning 'shortened' or 'mutilated', the ancestor of the modern word 'curt'. From its earliest English use it described small physical length or height, and over the centuries it picked up a rich spread of figurative meanings: a brief span of time, an inadequate amount ('short of money'), and an abrupt or curt manner of speaking. The financial sense, selling something one does not yet own, and the electrical sense of a 'short circuit' are much later specialised extensions of the same basic idea of something being cut off or incomplete. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable, with the sound of the older 'sc' simply settling into the familiar 'sh'.

How the word is built

• short (from Old English sceort: not long, cut off)