Shorthand

How to spell shorthand

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce shorthand

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shorthand mean?

1. nounA method of rapid writing that uses symbols or abbreviations to keep pace with speech.
2. nounA short or simplified way of referring to something more complex.

Shorthand in a sentence

• The court reporter recorded the testimony in shorthand.

• The phrase became a useful shorthand for the whole policy.

• She learned shorthand at secretarial college and could transcribe a meeting almost word for word.

• "the cloud" is really just shorthand for someone else's computer.

Where does shorthand come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, formed by joining the native words 'short' and 'hand'. 'Short' descends from Old English sceort, meaning 'not long', while 'hand' here carries its old sense of 'handwriting' or 'a person's penmanship', a meaning still alive in phrases like 'a neat hand'. Put together in the early 1600s, shorthand literally named a 'short' or abbreviated way of writing, a system of strokes and symbols that let a scribe keep pace with rapid speech. The figurative use, meaning any quick and compressed way of referring to something, grew naturally out of that idea over the following centuries. Because both halves are common everyday words, the spelling holds no surprises: it is simply the two written solid as one word, with no space or hyphen.

How the word is built

• short (brief, abbreviated)
• hand (handwriting)