shorthand

[shawrt-hand]

noun

a method of rapid handwriting using simple strokes, abbreviations, or symbols that designate letters, words, or phrases (distinguished from longhand).
a simplified or makeshift manner or system of communication: We spoke in a kind of pidgin shorthand to overcome the language barrier.

adjective

using or able to use shorthand.
written in shorthand.
of or relating to shorthand.

Origin of shorthand

First recorded in 1630–40; short + hand

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for short-hand

Contemporary Examples of short-hand

This is referred to by people today who recognize the existential danger by the short-hand acronym of ‘TBDO’—‘The Big Die Off.’
Wingnuts Excerpt—The Hatriots: Armed and Dangerous
John Avlon
March 30, 2010

Historical Examples of short-hand

Mrs. Fortescue says, 'that he is a complete master of short-hand writing.'
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)
Samuel Richardson
She was taking lessons in short-hand and type-writing in the afternoons.
Mary Gray
Katharine Tynan
Lady Agatha dictated it, and Mary took it down in short-hand.
Mary Gray
Katharine Tynan
In the short-hand of the police-courts, you had better call it suicide.
The Innocence of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton
I must have a stenographer of course, a short-hand typist, if I do begin this thing.
Man and Maid
Elinor Glyn

British Dictionary definitions for short-hand

shorthand

noun

1. a system of rapid handwriting employing simple strokes and other symbols to represent words or phrases
2. (as modifier)a shorthand typist

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for short-hand

shorthand

method of rapid writing, 1636, from short (adj.) in the "rapid" sense + hand (n.) "handwriting." Short-handed "having too few 'hands' " is from 1794; the ice hockey sense is recorded from 1939.