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.
双语例句
1. She was a shy, delicately pretty girl with enormous blue eyes.
她是一个害羞、娇美的女孩，长着一双大大的蓝眼睛。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I was something of a wallflower; I was terribly shy.
我算是朵墙花，因为我特别害羞。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He's quiet and a bit on the shy side.
他很安静，略有点害羞。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The publicity-shy singer spoke frankly in his first interview in three years.
这位不喜欢抛头露面的歌手在3年来的首次访谈中畅所欲言。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Her normally shy son had come out of his shell.
