in short

[Mher]

Dear friends, given the context, could you propose another synonym for "in short"?
Does it mean "to put it briefly" or "soon"? Taking into account the punctuation, I am more prone to the first version.
"The funeral, in short, was hastened, on account of the rapid advance of what was supposed to be decomposition."

(http://poestories.com/read/premature)

 

[teechar]

"To put it briefly" is OK. "In short" doesn't mean "soon."
;-)

 

[probus]

"To put it briefly" is OK. "In short" doesn't mean "soon."
;-)

Correct, but why the wink?

 

[teechar]

Correct, but why the wink?

I suppose it's a force of habit. I just mean it as a friendly gesture.
;-)

 

[MikeNewYork]

In my opinion, "in short" has no reason to be there.

 

[Roman55]

'In short' is there because Poe puts it in the last sentence of a relatively lengthy descriptive paragraph. IMO it has every reason to be there.

 

[Mher]

In my opinion, "in short" has no reason to be there.

I totally agree with you, Mike. I asked the question for this very reason. "In short" certainly sounds weird here.:up:

'In short' is there because Poe puts it in the last sentence of a relatively lengthy descriptive paragraph. IMO it has every reason to be there.

Dear Roman, the last sentence is a logical continuation of the previous one. Saying "in short" implies that one has deliberately omitted some obvious details and have immediately jumped to the given sentence. Here I do not see any attempt of such kind. In fact, I am now thinking about replacing "in short" with "thus" or "hence" in the Armenian version. That is how I read this sentence.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Mike didn't know the rest of the text. Roman does, and he's right. If there was a long description before, then "in short" means the same as "to summarize" or "in a nutshell." But shorter.

I'm sure that now that Mike knows the context of the line, he'll agree.

"In short" does not mean than anyone deliberately omitted anything. You had it right in your post: it means "in brief."

I hope that helps!

 

[MikeNewYork]

This reminds me of a person who goes on and on with a story and then says "to make a long story short". I usually say "Too late".

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Dear friends, given the context, could you propose another synonym for "in short"?
Does it mean "to put it briefly" or "soon"?

And by the way, I don't think anyone mentioned this, but soon and shortly can mean almost the same thing. I'll be with you soon. I'll be with you shortly. (Shortly is usually sooner than soon. It just a little longer than right away.)