shimmer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shimeren, also shemeren,^[2][3] inherited from Old English scimrian, also scymrian and scimerian,^[2][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *skimarōną.^[1] Etymonline and Klein take the Old English verb as a frequentative of scīmian (“to shine”),^[7][8] which Klein derives from scīma (“light, brightness”).^[8] It is cognate with West Frisian skimerje, Middle Low German schēmeren (“to be shadowy, grow dark, glimmer”), Dutch schemeren, German schimmern and Swedish skimra,^[5][9][8] and related to Old Saxon skīmo, Old High German scīmo (“light, brightness”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐌼𐌰 (skeima, “lantern”).^[8] Ayto traces the Germanic base to an extension of the base of shine and sheer,^[10] and Etymonline to Proto-Indo-European *skai- (“to gleam, shine”).^[7] The OED relates it to the obsolete verb shim, to shine, and compares the northern skimmer.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shine, glisten: in the Old English Rule of Chrodegang,^[5] where Þá se dægredleóma beorhte scymrode renders Latin matutina luce radiante, "when the light of dawn shone brightly".^[4] An Old English gloss on Aldhelm uses the verb of a mote quivering in a sunbeam.^[4] Barnhart dates the Old English verb to before 1100.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In early use the verb could mean to shine brightly as well as to gleam faintly.^[5][6] In Middle English it is found from before 1250, in Hali Meiðhad of shining maidens, and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight of a castle that schemered & schon through the trees.^[2][4] According to Hoad, the word fell out of use in the 17th century and was revived by Scott in the 19th;^[11] the noun, a faint tremulous light, is first recorded in Scott's Kenilworth (1821).^[5][9][7] The older noun had been shimmering, from the late 14th century.^[7] In West Yorkshire dialect the verb also meant to glide or flit past,^[12] a sense the OED records from 1904,^[5] and around Halifax a shimmer was a figure or appearance.^[12] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds the wavering, distorted image produced by heat waves.^[3]

Timeline

• Old English – to shine, glisten.^[5][4]
• before 1250 – Middle English schimeren, to shine, glisten.^[2][9]
• 1821 – noun, a subdued, tremulous light.^[5][9][3]
• 1904 – to move lightly, glide.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shine with a soft, wavering light; to gleam faintly: Moonlight shimmered on the lake.^[13][3][5]
2. To appear to waver, as an image seen through rising heat.^[3]
3. To cause something to shimmer.^[3]
4. To move lightly and effortlessly; to glide.^[5][6]

Noun

1. A soft, wavering light or sheen; a faint glimmer: the shimmer of silk.^[13][3][5]
2. A wavering image produced by heat rising from a surface.^[3]

Word family

• shimmeringly
• shimmery

Related words

• shine
• shim
• sheer

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the OED also record a separate shimmer formed from shim, the thin wedge: a verb, to fit a shim (recorded from 1908), and a noun, a worker who inserts shims.^[3][5] In older Scots a shimmer was one of the crossbars of a grain kiln, and in East Yorkshire the verb meant to break into fragments.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c 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)
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins