Etymology Journal ยท L
Long story short
Meaning
- A conversational shortcut used to skip over boring details and get straight to the point. It usually follows a five-minute tangent.
Efficient, conversational
Used in a sentence
- Anyway, long story short, I missed my flight and had to sleep in the terminal.
- Long story short, the car would not start and I was late for dinner.
- To make a long story short, we never found the cat.
The backstory
A functional idiomatic expression that has been used for centuries to manage the length of an anecdote. It is a sign of someone realizing they have been talking for too long.
Heard in
Nationwide
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