shorthand

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A system of rapid handwriting employing symbols to represent words, phrases, and letters.
• noun A system, form, or instance of abbreviated or formulaic reference.

from The Century Dictionary.

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

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A compendious and rapid method of writing by substituting symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography; phonography
• noun any brief or shortened way of saying or doing something

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a method of writing rapidly
• adjective written in abbreviated or symbolic form