# What is a "short" in this context?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-short-in-this-context/818258>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 20, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-short-in-this-context/818258 "2018-07-20T05:42:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-short-in-this-context/818258/1 "2018-07-20T05:42:49Z")

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In the 1974 movie _Phantom of the Paradise_, there is a line in the song “Upholstery,” which is about cars, and which says,

“Of all life’s mysteries the greatest one I’ve seen:  
My short runs better when it’s clean.”

What is a “short” in this context?

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2018, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-short-in-this-context/818258/2 "2018-07-20T06:48:14Z")

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U.S. slang for a car.

♫ ♬ It happened on the strip where the road is wide /  
Two cool shorts standing side-by-side…

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2018, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-short-in-this-context/818258/3 "2018-07-20T06:52:50Z")

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From the _Oxford English Dictionary_:

> [@](#):
>
> **short:** _U.S. slang._ A street-car; a car.
> 
> **1914** Jackson & Hellyer _Vocab. Criminal Slang_ 76 Short,‥a street car. Derived from the limited extent of a street car ride compared with the distances negotiable by railroad transportation. **1932** _Literary Digest_ 9 Apr. 36 Short, an automobile, used especially in the phrase ‘hot short’, for a stolen car. **1961** ‘D. Shannon’ _Ace of Spaces_ vi. 70 This perfectly good almost brand new Caddy I got for him, a present, an’ he says he can’t handle it‥comes back with this piece of old junk, my God, pickin’ up a thing like—stickin’ me with a hot short to get rid of! **1975** W. McCarthy _Fourth Man_ i. 26 Everybody brings him hot cars‥shorts, we get up north, he fixes 'em up and then sells 'em.