English edit

Etymology edit

From short +‎ -some. For sense development from short to amusing, compare merry.

Adjective edit

shortsome (comparative more shortsome, superlative most shortsome)

  1. (UK dialectal, Scotland) Marked, or characterised by shortness; (by extension) amusing; enjoyable
    • 1827, Thomas Dibdin, The Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin:
      [...] and when the weather confined me within doors, my pencil and my violin made the time "unco shortsome."
    • 1886, F. J. Child, The Brown Robin:
      There's seven maries in your bower, / There's seven o them and three, / And I'll send them to good greenwood, / For flowers to shortsome thee.
    • 2009, Liz Curtis Higgs, Fair Is the Rose:
      'Twould be a dreary, lonely spring at Carlyle without shortsome Jane to add color to her days.

Anagrams edit