PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

_ (the underscore) is the placeholder for exactly one character.
% (the percent sign) is the placeholder for no, one or more than one character.
%% (two percent signs) is the placeholder for no, one or more than one character, but not for blank space (so that a search ends at word boundaries).

At the beginning and at the end, these placeholders are superfluous.

βραχύτερος‘shorter (in time)’

Greek

References: Alm. Heiberg: II.6, 102:6
Translated into:
Arabic: أقصر [Alm. MS Tunis: 22b.4]
Arabic: أقصر زمانا [Alm. MS Leiden: f. 17r.11]
Modern translations:
English: shorter [Alm. Toomer: 82]