Etymologically
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shorten

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈʃɔːtn̩/[1]
  • US: /ˈʃɔɹtn̩/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English short + -en,[2][3][4][5][6] and was shortenen in Middle English, also spelled scorten in the North.[7] Before it, the adjective itself served as the verb,[4][2] from Old English sceortian (“to grow short, run short, fail”);[4] Old English also had gescyrtan (“to make short”).[4] The adjective is from Old English sceort (“of little length; brief”),[4][8] probably from Proto-Germanic *skurtaz,[4][8] which is also the source of Old Norse skortr (“shortage, want”) and Old High German scurz (“short”).[8][4] Etymonline traces it further to Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”), on the notion of something cut off.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shorten a stay, to make it last less: in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle, written in 1338 and copied before 1400 ("to schorten our soiorne").[7] Etymonline dates "make shorter" to the mid 14th century and "grow shorter" to the late 14th.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb was used mostly of time: to cut short a stay or suffering, to bring an event sooner, to make a journey seem short, and of the days, to grow shorter, as in Trevisa (before 1398).[7] It could also mean to be brief in speaking, and, of breathing, to become short or difficult.[7][3] Reducing a text came in with Malory (before 1470), and reducing a physical length is recorded from 1530, in Palsgrave.[2] Later uses were technical: shortening a vowel (1578, Florio), a rein or a weapon held in the hand (1597, Hooker), and a shoot in pruning (1665, Hooke).[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave the general sense "to make short, either in time or space".[9] In cookery, to make pastry crumbly with fat, the verb dates from the 18th century,[3] and Etymonline links it to the 1733 sense of shortening.[4] In the late 19th century it was used of betting odds becoming or being made lower.[3][10] In Scotland and in Cumberland, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, to shorten a baby was to put it into short clothes for the first time.[11][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1338 – to shorten a stay, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle.[7]
  • before 1398 – of the days, to grow shorter.[7]
  • before 1470 – to abridge a text, in Malory.[2]
  • 1530 – to reduce something in length.[2][12]
  • 1574 – to keep someone short of supplies (obsolete by 1786).[2]
  • 1578 – to make a vowel or syllable short.[2]
  • 1665 – to cut back a shoot in pruning.[2][3]
  • 1755 – Johnson: to make short in time or space.[9]
  • 1851 – intransitive, to become shorter in length.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make shorter in length or duration; to curtail: The tailor shortened the sleeves of my jacket.[10][6][3]
  2. To become shorter: In autumn the evenings shorten quickly.[10][3][2]
  3. To reduce a text or speech; to abridge.[2][3]
  4. (nautical) To reduce the area of sail that is set.[10]
  5. Of betting odds, to become lower, or to make them lower.[10][3]
  6. To make pastry crumbly by adding butter or other fat.[10][3]
  7. (archaic) To dress a baby in short clothes for the first time.[3][11]
  8. (obsolete, 1574–1786) To keep a person short of something; to supply insufficiently.[2][3]

Word family

  • shortener
  • foreshorten
  • overshorten
  • preshorten
  • reshorten
  • unshorten
  • shortening

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  12. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)