shorthand

A system of rapid handwriting employing symbols to represent words, phrases, and letters.

A system, form, or instance of abbreviated or formulaic reference.

A system of writing briefer than that in general use (which is distinctively called longhand); a method of writing in which abbreviations or arbitrary simple characters or symbols are more or less systematically employed, in order to write words with greater rapidity than in the ordinary method of writing; brachygraphy; stenography; tachygraphy.

For further comparison, the sentence “my tongue is the pen of a ready writer,” as written in these three systems, is here given:

[The following passage is an early allusion to the use of the word in this sense:

Of writing, contracted; stenographic; written in shorthand: as, shorthand notes.

Of persons, using shorthand; stenographic.

A compendious and rapid method or writing by substituting characters, abbreviations, or symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography. See Illust. under phonography.

A compendious and rapid method of writing by substituting symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography; phonography

any brief or shortened way of saying or doing something