Other forms: shorter, shortest
Short means measuring little from end to end, or not tall. A short walk, a short man, short hair, a short meeting. It covers length, height and duration with the same word.
Two other uses are common and easy to miss. Short of something means not having enough: short of money, short of time, we are two chairs short. And short with somebody means curt to the point of rudeness — she was rather short with him. The noun short is a short film or, in electricity, a short circuit; shorts are trousers. Note the adverb short, which does not take -ly: stop short, fall short, cut something short.
1adjectiveshortMeasuring little from end to end.~24%
“It is a short walk from the station.”
2adjectivetallNot tall.~2%
“He is short and built like a door.”
3adjectivelastingLasting only a little time.~70%
“There was a short pause before she answered.”
4adjectiveenoughNot having enough of something.~2%
“We are short of volunteers this year.”
5adjectivecurtCurt, to the point of rudeness.~2%
“Sorry for being short with you earlier.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 14 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense (2 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
short is a measurement.
Old English sceort goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to cut. Something short is something that has been cut off, and the same root gives shear, share, score and shirt — a garment cut short.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker-
Middle English
schort
English, today
short
Built from
From Middle English schort. From Middle English schort, short, from Old English sċeort, sċort (“short”), from Proto-West Germanic skurt, from Proto-Germanic skurtaz (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker-. a doublet of shirt and skirt and curt. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA