shy
pronunciation
How to pronounce shy in British English:
UK [ʃaɪ]
How to pronounce shy in American English:
US [ʃaɪ]
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- Noun:
- a quick throw
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- Verb:
- start suddenly, as from fight
- throw quickly
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- Adjective:
- lacking self-confidence
- easily startled or frightened
- short
- wary and distrustful; disposed to avoid persons or things
Word Origin
- shy
- shy: Shy ‘timid, reserved’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *skeukhwaz ‘afraid’ (source also of English eschew and skew). It is generally assumed that shy ‘throw’ [18] must have come from it, but the exact nature of the relationship between the two words is not clear. The original application of the verb seems to have been specifically to the throwing of sticks at chickens, and it has been suggested, not altogether convincingly, that its use alludes to the notion of a ‘shy’ cockerel that refuses to fight (there was an 18th- and early 19th-century slang term shy-cock which meant ‘cowardly person’).=> eschew, skew
- shy (adj.)
- late Old English sceoh "timid, easily startled," from Proto-Germanic *skeukh(w)az "afraid" (cognates: Middle Low German schüwe, Dutch schuw, German scheu "shy;" Old High German sciuhen, German scheuchen "to scare away"). Uncertain cognates outside Germanic, unless in Old Church Slavonic shchuti "to hunt, incite." Italian schivare "to avoid," Old French eschiver "to shun" are Germanic loan-words. Meaning "lacking, short of" is from 1895, American English gambling slang. Related: Shyly; shyness.
- shy (v.1)
- "to throw (a missile) with a jerk or toss," 1787, colloquial, of unknown origin and uncertain connection to shy (adj.). Related: Shied; shying.
- shy (v.2)
- "to recoil," 1640s, from shy (adj.). Related: Shied; shying.
Example
- 1. Have no word with him if you are shy .
- 2. It is important to me to be funny because I was a shy boy .
- 3. Vienna isn 't shy about its love for christmas .
- 4. She was pretty , personable and very shy .
- 5. Japanese journalists do not usually shy away from a murder mystery .