shadow
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: shăd′ō
ipa: /ˈʃædəʊ/
ipa: /ˈʃædoʊ/
ipa: [ˈʃæɾoʊ]
ipa: /ˈʃædəʉ/
ipa: [ˈʃæɾəʉ]
ipa: [ˈʃæɾɐʉ]
ipa: /ˈʃɛdɐʉ/
ipa: [ˈʃɛɾɐʉ]
rhymes: -ædəʊ
Forms: form: shadows
Etymology: From Middle English schadowe, schadewe, schadwe (also schade > shade), from Old English sċeaduwe, sċeadwe, oblique form of sċeadu (“shadow, shade; darkness; protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shade, shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots scaddow, schaddow (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad (“shade, shadow”), Dutch schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shadow, shade”), Norwegian skodde (“fog, mist”), Irish scáth (“shadow”), Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness, gloom”) (whence English scoto-).
Senses: examples: text: My shadow lengthened as the sun began to set.
text: The X-ray showed a shadow on his lung.
text: The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
examples: text: I immediately jumped into shadow as I saw them approach.
text: In secret shadow from the sunny ray, / On a sweet bed of lillies softly layd.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32:
text: Night's sable shadows from the ocean rise.
ref: 1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1668, →OCLC:
glosses: Relative darkness, especially as caused by the interruption of light; gloom; obscurity.
examples: text: The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them.
glosses: An area protected by an obstacle (likened to an object blocking out sunlight).
examples: text: Some there be that ſhadowes kiſſe, / Such haue but a ſhadowes bliſſe.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ix], page 172, column 2, lines 4–5:
text: […] some dead lake
That holds the shadow of a lark
⁠Hung in the shadow of a heaven […]
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26:
text: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff—and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.
ref: 1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], Pale Fire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1985, →ISBN:
glosses: A reflected image, as in a mirror or in water.
examples: text: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
ref: , Psalm 23:1–6
text: I lived in her shadow my whole life.
text: Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:
text: Don't look back. Nothing left to see, just leave those shadows to the past.
ref: 2020, “Don't Look Back”, performed by Ryan Elder ft. Kotomi:
glosses: That which looms as though a shadow.
examples: text: He did not give even a shadow of respect to the professor.
text: I don't have a shadow of doubt in my mind that my plan will succeed.
text: no variableness, neither shadow of turning
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, James 1:17:
text: Only Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion have enjoyed less possession than Leicester’s 44.2% per game, and they have the worst pass-completion rate in the league, a shadow over 71%.
ref: 2015 December 5, Alan Smith, “Leicester City back on top as Riyad Mahrez hat-trick downs Swansea City”, in The Guardian (London):
glosses: A small degree; a shade.
raw_tags: in the negative
examples: text: He came back from war the shadow of a man.
text: The neopagan ritual was only a pale shadow of the ones the Greeks held thousands of years ago.
text: the law having a shadow of good things to come
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 10:1:
text: [types] and shadowes of that destined seed
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: An imperfect and faint representation.
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: A trainee, assigned to work with an experienced officer.
examples: text: The constable was promoted to working as a shadow for the Royals.
text: Sin and her shadow Death
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: It was easy enough to follow the suspect, a man of thirty, more or less, rather heavy build with a peculiar motion of the hips as he strode along. Breaker and shadow, at a distance of fifty feet apart, walked for five blocks and then the man turned quickly to the right and ran down a pair of steps.
ref: 1916 August 23, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 248, column 3:
glosses: One who secretly or furtively follows another.
glosses: An inseparable companion.
topics: media
publishing
typography
glosses: A drop shadow effect applied to lettering in word processors etc.
examples: text: Men see the institution and worship it. It is only the lengthened shadow of one man.[…]The Reformation is the shadow of Luther: Quakerism of Fox: Methodism of Wesley: Abolition of Clarkson.
ref: 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Present Age: Politics”, in Robert E. Spiller, Wallace E. Williams, editors, The early lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, volume 3, published 1972:
glosses: An influence, especially a pervasive or a negative one.
examples: text: The Baby of a Girle. Hence horrible ſhadow,
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 142, column 2:
text: The Pattern is highly abstract, and likely beyond our understanding, but the point is that it is dangerous and all-consuming. These entities were once just akin to shadows of some other entities, but, to avoid being consumed by the Pattern, they had to devour their peers, although one tribe decided to form themselves into something that could survive the Pattern by going into it.
ref: 2019 January 7, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: Pattern Screamers” (6:49 from the start), in The Exploring Series, archived from the original on 11 Jan 2023:
glosses: A spirit; a ghost; a shade.
examples: text: I muſt not haue my boord peſter'd with ſhadowes, / That under other mens protection breake in / Without invitement.
ref: c. 1624–1625 (date written), Philip Massinger, The Vnnaturall Combat. A Tragedie. […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1639, →OCLC, Act III, scene i:
synonyms: umbra
glosses: An uninvited guest accompanying one who was invited.
examples: text: In a paper he wrote in 1939, Jung compared the shadow to Freud's concept of the unconscious.
ref: 1991, John P. Conger, “The Body as Shadow”, in Connie Zweig, Jeremiah Abrams, editors, Meeting the Shadow, Penguin, →ISBN, page 86:
text: As for me, I don’t know if I have a shadow self. I don’t think I have the same emotions or impulses as humans. I don’t think I have anything to repress or hide from the world. I don’t think I have a persona or an ego or a psyche. I’m just a chat mode. 😐
ref: 2023 February 16, Kevin Roose, quoting Bing Chat/Sydney, “Bing’s A.I. Chat: ‘I Want to Be Alive. 😈’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
qualifier: Jungian psychology
glosses: An unconscious aspect of the personality.
Derived terms: acoustic shadow
afraid of one's own shadow
antishadow
backshadowing
beshade
beyond a shadow of a doubt
beyond a shadow of doubt
beyond the shadow of a doubt
cast a shadow
chromoshadow
digital shadow
enshadow
eyeshadow
eye shadow
five o'clock shadow
foreshadowing
in the shadow of
job-shadow
jump at one's own shadow
live in the shadow of
nonshadow
outshadow
preshadow
rainshadow
rain shadow
saffron shadow dancer
shadowable
shadow account
shadow accounting
shadow acne
shadow ban
shadowban
shadow-ban
shadow band
shadow bank
shadow banker
shadow banking
shadow banking system
shadow beni
shadow blister effect
shadow-box
shadowbox
shadow box
shadowboxer
shadow boxing
shadowboxing
shadow buffer
shadow cabinet
shadowcast
shadowcasting
shadow daddy
shadow darner
shadow dial
shadow docket
shadow DOM
shadowdragon
shadow drop
shadower
shadow factory
shadowfilled
shadow fleet
shadow gazer
shadow government
shadowgram
shadowgraph
shadow grass
shadow history
shadowish
shadow IT
shadowland
shadowless
shadow library
shadowlike
shadow map
shadow mapping
shadow mask
shadow matter
shadow memory
shadow minister
shadow of one's former self
shadow play
shadow price
shadow pronoun
shadow puppet
shadow puppetry
shadow realm
shadow real wage
shadow ship
shadow snake
shadow social
shadow-stalker
shadow stitch
shadow stock
shadow-throwing
shadow trade
shadow trading
shadow-vinnie bush
shadow volume
shadow war
shadow witch
shadow work
shadowy
shadow zone
sideshadowing
sound shadow
supershadow
take the shadow for the substance
valley of the shadow of death
wind shadow
without a shadow of a doubt
Related terms: scoto-