短

短 (Kangxi radical 111, 矢+7, 12 strokes, cangjie input 人大一口廿 (OKMRT), four-corner 8141₈, composition ⿰矢豆)

• 𢵦, 𥐆, 𥐋, 𥐇, 𥐍, 𧸒, 𥐏, 𥐐, 𥐔, 𥐒, 𥐉

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 824, character 33
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 23978
• Dae Jaweon: page 1237, character 22
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2584, character 3
• Unihan data for U+77ED

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *toːnʔ): semantic 矢 + phonetic 豆 (OC *doːs).

The Proto-Min reconstructed form is *toiᴮ (Bodman, 1980). The relationship of this to the -n forms in other dialects is unclear and two theories exist:

• Old Chinese *tˤorʔ divergently developed into (1) *toj in southeastern China, and (2) *ton elsewhere (Baxter and Sagart, 2014). Compare also:
  • 端 (OC *tˤor) vs 瑞 (OC *[d]or-s)
  • 算 (OC *[s]ˤorʔ-s)
  • 卵 (OC *k.rˤorʔ).
• Proto-Min may represent the original Old Chinese form, and the forms in other Chinese varieties are due to confusion with 斷 (OC *toːnʔ, *toːns, *doːnʔ, “to cut”) (Schuessler, 2007).

STEDT sets up two roots for this: Proto-Sino-Tibetan *t(j)u(ŋ/n) (“short”), whence Burmese တောင်း (taung:, “short (as in garment)”), and *dəw (“short”), whence Burmese တို (tui, “short”), Mizo tawi (“short”).

短

1. short (of distance)

   Antonym: 長 / 长

2. short (of time); brief
3. (literary or Wu) short (in stature)

   • 蓋帝堯長，帝舜短；文王長，周公短；仲尼長，子弓短。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     盖帝尧长，帝舜短；文王长，周公短；仲尼长，子弓短。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: Xunzi, c. 3^rd century BCE

     Gài Dì Yáo cháng, Dì Shùn duǎn; Wénwáng cháng, Zhōugōng duǎn; Zhòngní cháng, Zǐgōng duǎn. [Pinyin]

     Emperor Yao was tall, but Emperor Shun was short; King Wen was tall, but the Duke of Zhou was short; Confucius was tall, but Zigong was short.

4. deficient; lacking
5. weakness; shortcoming; mistake
6. (Mainland China, transitive) to text; to send a text message to

• “短”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

1. short, brief

• Go-on: たん (tan, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: たん (tan, Jōyō)
• Kun: みじかい (mijikai, 短い, Jōyō)

From Middle Chinese 短 (twan^X, “short”).

• (Tokyo) たん [táꜜǹ] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [tã̠ɴ]

短(たん) • (tan) 

1. fault, weak point
2. (music) minor
4. (hanafuda) (often in katakana) clipping of 短冊

• 長(ちょう) (chō)

短 (eumhun 짧을 단 (jjalbeul dan))

1. hanja form^? of 단 (“short”)

• 단기간 (短期間, dan'gigan, “a short period”)

短: Hán Nôm readings: đoản, đuỗn, ngắn, vắn

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.