Why do we announce "long story short" instead of just doing it?

So the person should appreciate that I have cut about 10 minutes out of my story. :-)

So the person knows there is more to the story.

@chyna Exactly!!

So that the person knows that the story may not make sense that way, and I’m just cutting to the punch line.

@J0E: You took my answer.

It also gives the person hearing the story to say they want to hear the whole story later if they want or just leave it be.

I have a tendency to blert out: “Short story long” when a story gets drawn out and side tracked.

when someone refers to “a long story being short” – they are already thinking TOO LATE, and you see it their facial expressions, so you decide not to panic and attempt to neutralize the situation by saying to make a long story short… blah blah blah :)

“Anyway, long story short…is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling.” – Grampa Simpson

It seems to be just a way to tell the person there is more to the story, but they are going to cut it all out and get straight to the point. If they’ve been telling the story in detail so far, they’re now signifying they’re not going to put as much detail into finishing the story.

I find that sometimes people will say it because they think that just by making that comment it will cover up the fact that they took too long to tell it….

Because there’s more to it than meets the eye!!!!!!

If you cut something short without such an announcement, you may give the impression that something is far simpler than it is.

Personally, I often use it so that some of the stuff I say isn’t a total non sequitor since it implies that there is some convoluted logic as opposed to total randomness behind my connecting of two things but I don’t feel like taking a couple of hours filling them in on background information and a full mind-map.

The expression itself irritates me. Truncated as it is, it makes no sense. The phrase is “to make a long story short.” That actually has some meaning.

I used to hear the full expression used when someone really was abbreviating a tale, omitting a lot of detail and skipping middle parts—making a long story short (that is, shortening the story). Now I think it is itself just more empty filler, uttered mindlessly because (nearly) everybody else does.

Either that or it’s a half-hearted apology for going on at length and now the speaker realizes he’d better hurry up or he’ll lose his audience, and so he tells you he’s finally going to wrap it up. In this use it has the spirit of “bear with me.”

You’ll never hear me say it.

@Jeruba You use contractions yourself, so I find your position a little hypocritical. If you do not like shortened forms then do not use contractions!

As for it now being empty filler, I think that more and more conversations these days are content-free “filler”. That is why I like Fluther so much; there is actually some substance here.

@Jeruba

Sort of like “the proof is in the pudding” except not near as bad in my opinion. :P

@jerv

Omitting part of an idiom can obscure its meaning; a contraction leaves the meaning intact; it’s just shorter.

@Jeruba “The expression itself irritates me. Truncated as it is, it makes no sense. The phrase is “to make a long story short.” That actually has some meaning.”

Such is the nature of language. People shorten phrases, meanings arise where they previously did not exist, etc. It is a constantly changing phenomenon. Why be agitated at the fact that the phrase “to make a long story short” has been modified, when all languages are essentially modified versions of older languages?

You know what’s an odd phrase? “All of a sudden”. What is “a sudden”, and what does it mean to say, ”all of a sudden?” Does that mean, the entirety of one sudden?

When I do it, it’s just for the reason @Jeruba mentions… because I realize I’m rambling and need to wrap it up.

@chocolatechip I’m pretty sure she does. :)

What Joe said. They’re just explaining what they’re doing, it’s natural i suppose.

Verbal communication uses different cues. If the eyes of your listener are glazing over with boredom, then this statement might serve to say you understand and you’ll move on to something more interesting.

I’m like @augustlan in that it’s more of an apology because I just realized I was rambling…

You’re accusing me of hypocrisy, @jerv, for saying I found a certain phrase irritating? Have you looked that word up? That is a pretty strong charge for what might be construed as a little inconsistency, but for the fact that @DominicX‘s point is apt: truncating an idiom is an entirely different matter from using a shortened form that retains its meaning.

Some fragments of idiomatic expressions still make some kind of grammatical and syntactic sense:
•  “silver spoon”
•  “don’t throw the baby out”
•  “closing the barn door”
•  “don’t count your chickens”
Some don’t:
•  “one and a half dozen”
•  “hand is worth two”
•  “a feather flock”
•  “birds with one stone”
I think saying “long story short” is like saying “birds with one stone” when you mean “to kill two birds with one stone”: what’s left of the phrase doesn’t hang together meaningfully. So instead it’s just empty words that somebody parrots thoughtlessly. Or so it seems to me.

@Jeruba “So instead it’s just empty words that somebody parrots thoughtlessly. Or so it seems to me.”

Or maybe the thought and meaning is still there and they just…shortened the phrase.

@Jeruba Not quite. Finding something irritating but doing that same thing yourself without any apparent sense of self-loathing appears to fit the first sense listed in that definition link you provided. I also feel that omitting the “To make a” part of that phrase leaves the meaning intact, thus negating @DominicX ‘s point in this instance.
Maybe the issue here is that you and I have different ways of parsing syntax?

It has nothing to do with virtue and moral or religious principles, and I am not making any pretense whatsoever. I am a sincere and honest person, whether you happen to agree with me or not. But there. I should not have to defend my character, so I’ll say no more.

@jerv: Oh for goodness sake, saying “I’m” instead of “I am” is not the same as using a shortened idiom.

@jerv

It leaves the understood meaning intact, but it does not leave the literal meaning intact.

Although, I wonder about some of these truncated idioms. What exactly do people mean when they say “the proof is in the pudding?” I don’t hear this one that often, so I’m not really sure. I know what the real meaning of it is, but is that what people mean when they say the truncated version?

@DominicX: I always figured that had something to do with JJ Tomsom’s postulated “plum pudding” model of the atom. I could be wrong though.

Here is the story behind the pudding idiom. In case you aren’t aware of how the British use the term ‘pudding’, you may want to read this.

@KatawaGrey That depends on the idiom. In this case, it is the same.
@DominicX Practically nobody speaks literally. Look at how often words are used in an erroneous manner. If you want to turn every conversation into an argument over semantics though, you are seen as a pain in the ass. Of course, I am already seen as a pain in the ass,..

@christos99 That reminds me of Clue (which, admittedly, I was thinking of when I saw the original question anyway). “To make a long story short…” / “TOO LATE!” / ”... one by one you all arrived.”

There are other conversation quirks similar to this one that make me shake my head, such as “Guess what!” (which an exclamation and not a question) or “in my opinion” (which is assumed, though this annoys me moreso in writing than it does in speech.) Language is funny; it rarely ceases to ammuse me.