dim

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dim, also dimme,^[2] inherited from Old English dimm (“dark, gloomy, obscure”),^[3][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz (“dark”),^[1][7] which Barnhart writes *dimbaz.^[5] It is cognate with Old Frisian dim and Old Norse dimmr,^[3][4][6] and related to Old High German timbar (“dark, black, sombre”), later timber and timmer.^[3][6][4] The OED and Etymonline call it unknown outside Germanic,^[3][4] but Hoad and Merriam-Webster compare Middle Irish dem (“black, dark”),^[6][8] and Klein and Barnhart Ancient Greek θέμερος (themerós, “grave, austere”).^[9][5] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dʰem- (“smoky, dark”),^[5] and Kroonen gives two possible reconstructions, one linking it with Middle Irish deime (“darkness”), the other with the Old High German adjective.^[7] Barnhart relates it to damp and dank.^[5] Old English also had the verbs ādimmian and fordimmian, and Old Norse dimma (“to become dim”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a light or a lit object: faintly shining, rather dark, gloomy: Old English, in the poem the OED cites as Cædmon's Satan.^[3][5] Old English also used it for things hard to see, and figuratively.^[3] Holthausen glosses the Old English adjective as gloomy, dark, sinister, weak and evil,^[10] and Klein includes the senses unknown and wicked.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was applied to the eyes, not seeing clearly, from the early 13th century,^[4][3] to colours, dull and lustreless, from before 1250,^[3] and to sounds, faint and indistinct, from 1398 in Trevisa,^[3] or the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[4] The figurative sense, not clear to the mind, appears about 1350.^[3] These belong to old patterns of describing understanding and secrecy in terms of darkness, and stupidity in terms of dull colour.^[11] A person was called dim, dull of understanding, by 1729,^[3] and Johnson (1755) listed dull of apprehension as the word's second sense.^[12] The phrase to take a dim view of, to disapprove of, is recorded from 1930.^[3] The noun meant dimness or dusk from about 1390,^[2][3] and in dialect the dim was the midsummer twilight in Shetland, in the dim meant at dusk in Derbyshire, and the dims was twilight in Surrey.^[13] In African-American slang of the 1940s the dim was the evening or night.^[14] The simple verb is found from the 13th century,^[3] of eyes losing their sight according to Etymonline;^[4] from 1942 to dim out meant to darken a city's lights in wartime.^[3]

Timeline

• Old English – faintly lit, dark, gloomy.^[3]
• before 1220 – of eyes, not seeing clearly.^[3][4]
• before 1250 – of colour, dull.^[3]
• before 1300 – verb, to grow dim; to make dim.^[3]
• c. 1350 – not clear to the mind.^[3]
• c. 1390 – noun, dimness, darkness.^[2]
• 1398 – of sound, faint.^[3]
• before 1729 – of a person, dull, not bright.^[3]
• 1930 – to take a dim view.^[3]
• 1942 – to dim out.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Giving out little light; not bright: the dim glow of a candle.^[15][8][16]
2. Poorly lit; gloomy: a dim corridor.^[15][8]
3. Not clearly seen; faint or indistinct.^[15][8][3]
4. Not clear in the mind; vague: She had only a dim recollection of the house.^[15][3]
5. Of the eyes or sight: not seeing clearly.^[15][3]
6. Dull in colour; lacking lustre.^[15][16][3]
7. (informal) Slow to understand; stupid.^[15][3]
8. Not hopeful or favourable, as in take a dim view of, to disapprove of.^[15][3]
9. Of sound: faint, indistinct.^[3]

Verb

1. To make dim or less bright: The stagehands dimmed the house lights.^[8][16][3]
2. To switch a vehicle's headlights to low beam.^[8][16]
3. To become dim; to fade: Their hopes dimmed as the weeks passed.^[8][16][3]

Noun

1. (archaic) Dimness; dusk.^[16][8][3]
2. The low beam of a vehicle's headlights, or a parking light.^[16][8]

Word family

• dimly
• dimness
• dimmable
• dimwit
• undimmed
• bedim
• dimmer
• undim

Related words

• damp
• dank

Usage notes

An unrelated dim, meaning half, was a written abbreviation of Latin dīmidium, used from 1478 to 1661.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
11. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster