shy

English has two words spelled shy: the adjective meaning timid, inherited from Old English, and a verb meaning to throw, of uncertain origin.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃaɪ/^[4]

shy¹ timid

Etymology

It is Middle English schey, inherited from Old English sċēoh (“timid, easily startled”),^[1][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *skeukhwaz, afraid,^[2][3] source also of Dutch schuw and German scheu (“shy”).^[2][1] Italian schivare and Old French eschiver, to avoid, are Germanic loanwords.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of horses, easily frightened or startled: about 1000 in Barnhart;^[1][6] schey, 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the word was applied to horses, and to people from the start of the 17th century.^[6] Shrinking from contact with others through timidity is by about 1600.^[2] Unwilling to commit oneself is from the 17th century.^[3] The verb, to recoil or take fright, is from the 1640s,^[2][5] and a horse's sudden start aside from 1791.^[7] Shy away from is by 1867.^[2] As the second part of compounds, as gun-shy, it is by 1849, and lacking or short of, American gambling slang, from 1895.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – of horses, easily startled.^[1]
• c. 1600 – of people, timid.^[2]
• 1640s – to start back (verb).^[2]
• 1849 – gun-shy.^[2]
• 1895 – short of.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Nervous or timid in the company of others.
2. Easily frightened; wary: camera-shy.
3. (informal) Short of a stated amount.

Verb

1. Of a horse, to start suddenly aside in fear.
2. (shy away from) To avoid through nervousness or reluctance.

Word family

• shyly
• shyness

shy² to throw

Etymology

It is of uncertain or obscure origin.^[1][2][8] The earliest uses refer to throwing sticks at cocks, suggesting a derivation from “shy cock”, a timid person (1768), or a cock trained to dodge, and so from the adjective shy.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To throw, fling: 1787, in Bentham's Defence of Usury.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The transitive shy at, to fling at, is by 1793.^[2] The noun, a quick throw, is from 1791,^[1][7] and a coconut shy at a fair is from the late 18th-century verb.^[6] A try or attempt, have a shy at, is from 1824, and a sarcastic attack from 1840.^[7]

Timeline

• 1787 – to throw.^[1]
• 1791 – a throw (noun).^[1][7]
• 1824 – an attempt.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To fling or throw something.

Noun

1. A quick throw.
2. (informal) An attempt.

Word family

• coconut shy

Related words

• eschew
• skew

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press