shade

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃeɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English schade, inherited from Old English sceadu (“partial darkness; shelter, protection”),^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz,^[3][2] source also of Dutch schaduw, German Schatten and Gothic skadus,^[3][5] from PIE *skot-wo-, from Proto-Indo-European *skoto- (“dark, shade”), also the root of Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness”).^[3][5] Shadow is the same word, from its oblique cases.^[4][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Partial darkness; shelter from the sun: before 900 in Barnhart, before 1000 in the OED.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Fowler, quoted by Etymonline, calls the difference between shade and shadow an accidental one, the nominative and oblique cases of the same word.^[3] The darkness of the underworld, the shades, is from 1594,^[7] and a ghost from the 1610s;^[3] shades of ..., invoking a memory, is from 1818.^[3] A lampshade is from 1780, an eyeshade from 1801 and a window blind by 1845.^[3] A grade of colour is from the 17th–18th century,^[4] and a slight degree, a shade better, is 18th-century.^[4] The verb, to screen from the sun, is from about 1400;^[3] in painting it is from 1797.^[3] Shades, sunglasses, and shady, questionable, are later colloquialisms.^[6][8]

Timeline

• before 900 – partial darkness.^[2]
• c. 1400 – to screen from the sun (verb).^[3]
• 1594 – the shades, the underworld.^[7]
• 1610s – a ghost.^[3]
• 1780 – a lampshade.^[3]
• 1845 – a window blind.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Comparative darkness and coolness caused by shelter from direct sunlight.
2. A colour, especially in its degree of darkness or lightness.
3. A slight degree or difference: a shade better.
4. A cover that reduces or directs light, as a lampshade or (chiefly US) a window blind.
5. (literary) A ghost.
6. (shades, informal) Sunglasses.

Verb

1. To screen from direct light.
2. To darken parts of a drawing to show depth or shadow.
3. To change gradually: blue shading into green.

Word family

• shader
• shadeless
• shadelessness
• semishade
• eyeshade
• lampshade
• sunshade
• nightshade

Related words

• scoto-
• shadow
• shed
• shady

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin