Motion Pictures What is a "Short"..as in "chopped short"

Always wondered what that meant..only time I'd ever heard the term was in AG when one of the Pharoh's talked about somebody's "Chopped Short".

 

Here's a page that lists 60's slang terms and definitions: http://cougartown.com/slang.html
According to that short is just another word for car.

 

from the lyrics to Beach Boy's Shut Down ......Two cool shorts standin side by side

 

I'll be darn.

Thanks

 

"Short" is what I recall from the late sixties. At least in California. Tim

 

Chech Marin called them chorts.

 

That Beach Boy song is the only reference I ever heard of the term. I think its regional. I never knew what they meant by it until someone on here deciphered it.

 

And the Cheech & Chong Christmas song:
"It's, like, Santa Claus used ta have this
Really charp chort, man, y'know? It was lower to da ground, had twice-
Pipes, candy-apple red and ****on top. Oooo, clean!"

 

In NorCal maybe other places it was a term used by the latino population mostly the Bomba crowd for a car. Not your mom's car it was a belly dragger as a rule.

And it is pronounced "Chort" with a cha mang.

 

I never heard the term short or "chort" except in the two above mentioned songs. For that matter, I never heard the term "belly dragger".
BTW, Cheech & Chong's Santa Clause and His Old Lady is my favorite Christmas song!!

 

i don't know when/where that term came from , but i knew what it meant because i read drag cartoons in the 60s. sometimes Pete Millar or other cartoonists would use the word short

 

"Shutdown" tune is the only reference I ever heard the term. Never heard it used in our area, then or now. Myself, as a young car nut, always thought it referred to a 'short' drag car (doorslammer) as compared to a (long) rail job, dragster. Just my take on it. Tach it up!

 

Belly dragger is Midwest ( KC?) and it is almost as far from Orange County to the Mission District as it is to the mid west. LOL The term may have been used or may be used in EasLA, I haven't spent much time there in about 30 years and didn't spend a lot of time there when I was still on the coast. usually going to SoCal was all about getting business taken care of and getting home. I got lots of family in the basin but I don't know most of them and I am the black sheep in the family so even those that I do know wouldn't appreciate a visit.

 

I don't know the origin either but the reference is to a car. I've heard it all my life in Nor. Cal. ****** might be right it being a Mexican American low rider slang.

 

I heard cars called Shorts, in ELA, in the 7th grade. 1957. It's a term from the '50s. You cannot say "That's a sick short", though. Stick to one era.

 

That would make pretty good sense.

 

From the great dictionary...Straight From the Fridge, Dad, a dictionary of hipster slang:

Short: An automobile. etymological quotation given goes...
"your fly chick is looking most frantic and your short is g***ed up and ready to roll."
From The Jives of Doctor Hepcat, Lavada Durst, 1953.
Having rubber requires a short!
There's lots of continuity from depression era underworld to beatnik to early rodder...
There should be a requirement that all writing on the HAMB be hip to the tip! Don't be L7!!

 

I'm sure as a teenager with raging hormones I thought the Beach Boys were talking about two girls in short- shorts.

 

**** Dale wrote "cool short" when he signed the dash on my 50 Ford sedan. It took me until 2 in the morning, but I got it done.

 

Chili Phil and ****** are correct, at least from personal observations... I was down south in '56, visiting a bud that lived between Whittier & Montebello. He had a couple of pals, Chicanos, gang members of the 'Ball Peens'...they were excitedly talking about their brother's short, a '46 Chevy Fleetline.
My pal Jerry and I were intrigued with the term..."The Short". We ***umed that it referred to a 'Bomb'.
(early low rider) But it meant any car.

Later on, in '58, a pal in San Jose warned some guys away from his mild custom '50 Ford 'shoebox'.
"Don't scarf the short, root!"
Bobby Basilli had a way with words.

 

Orale'.

 

I haven't heard it lately, but it meant a hot rod / car to me. Perhaps the second question might be, why short? Did having a car make the walk to work / store / school shorter? Gary

 

Late 1966, El Cajon ... I was sitting in my dumped (6.95s & 9.50s, torsion bars wound down) '57 Dodge at Oscar's with a cup of coffee & an order of onion rings. A powder blue '57 Chrysler New Porker coupe about 1'' off the ground pulls in across from us ... p***. side window lowers, & some guy with red eyes & slurred speech looks over & says "nice short, man".
Since we had the only two low cars in the place, I thought it had something to do with lowering, or maybe dope instead of ethnic slang ...

 

In a former life, I was a pretty fair trombone player. The first time I remember hearing the term was on an album from about 1958 by the "Jay & Kai Quintet". "Jay & Kai" were two jazz trombonists , J.J. Jonnson and Kai Winding (who was also responsible for the recording of "More, The theme from Mondo Cane"). It was used in a recorded dialogue while the two were discussing their careers. Because of this, I was always of the opinion that it was a jazz-based, hipster term.

 

Being from N.C. I always thought "short" was a west coast term for hotrod...........

 

^^ditto

 

The term appears in more songs than the Beach Boys or Cheech & Chong. One of my favorites is a doo-wop song called "Trickle, Trickle" by the Videos. In the song, the singer asks to borrow his friend's "short", so he can take his girl on a date.

 

Short meaning taxicab dates to the twenties in New York or the thirties at the latest. I am sure I have seen it in a Damon Runyon story and other places. It was a typical piece of underworld or gang land slang of the time.

 

that's cool, had no idea that where it originated.

 

Rustys post tweaked my curiosity, I found an online source that says it dates back to the late 1800's, in reference to streetcars, as most rides on streetcars were "short" in duration. Interesting...