Meaning
To insult someone subtly or indirectly, often through a cutting remark, a dismissive tone or a nonverbal gesture such as a side-eye, rather than an open attack. 'Shade' alone is also used as a noun ('that was shade'). Informal; rooted in Black and Latino LGBTQ+ communities. Informal and playful-to-biting; carries an implication of wit and subtlety that plain 'insult' does not. Regional use: General English; originated in African American and LGBTQ+ communities.
Origin
The expression arose in the 1980s Black and Latino LGBTQ+ ballroom scene in New York City, where ball culture had burgeoned from the early 1970s. It reached a wider public through Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, in which the veteran performer Dorian Corey gave the term its famous explanation, distinguishing shade from 'reading': shade is the artful way of putting someone down without saying anything explicit at all. The New York Times, tracing 'shade' through its own pages, documents this ballroom origin, and the Gay and Lesbian Review notes that shade, read, vogue and related vocabulary came from Black and Latinx gay and transgender communities before being absorbed into mainstream slang. The idiom spread in the 2010s via RuPaul's Drag Race and social media, and it is now standard informal English across many demographics.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- shade
- threw shade
- throw shade at
- throwing shade
Usage Examples
- The critic threw shade at the sequel by praising its 'ambitious runtime' and nothing else.
- When the presenter mispronounced her name twice, the singer's side-eye threw shade without a word.
- Their rivalry is conducted entirely through throwing shade in interviews rather than open arguments.