I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I\u2019m a little (maybe a lot) out of touch with all the current trends. I\u2019ve noticed lately that some people talk and use words that I\u2019m familiar with, but I don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n
A good example is the word \u201cshade.\u201d I\u2019ve used that word most all my life. When I was a kid, on hot summer days, we used to sit under the shade of a tree to cool off. I also remember calling my sunglasses \u201cshades\u201d when I wanted to talk cool. My dictionary says (1) shade is the blocking of sunlight by any object, and also the shadow created by that object. (2) a color, especially with regard to how light or dark it is or as distinguished from others nearly like it. (3) comparative darkness and coolness caused by shelter from direct sunlight. So far so good.<\/p>\n
But a few minutes ago, I read the following \u201cheadline\u201d to a story on the Internet: \u201cWas Taylor Swift Throwing Shade in \u2018Shake It off\u2019 Performance?\u201d<\/p>\n
To someone that grew up sitting under the shade of a tree, this doesn\u2019t make any sense at all. But the truth is I\u2019ve heard \u201cthrowing shade\u201d used a lot<\/em> lately\u2026so I figured I better do some extensive research to see what these people are talking about.<\/p>\n Apparently, in today\u2019s language, to throw shade means to insult someone or to trash talk to someone. I believe throwing shade falls into the idiom category \u2014 an idiom is a word, group of words, or a phrase that has a figurative meaning that is not easily deduced from its literal meaning. I think \u201cthrowing shade\u201d meets that criteria.<\/p>\n Turns out that the phrase came into use in the African-American and latino drag-performing communities in the 1980s and was introduced into the mainstream in the documentary Paris is Burning<\/em> in 1990.<\/p>\n Now if you\u2019re going to insult someone by \u201cthrowing shade\u201d there are rules\u2026the insult has to be subtle and not necessarily appear to be insulting at first. Here\u2019s an example: someone is ugly \u2014 but say they already know they\u2019re ugly, you say something that\u2019s not directly an insult that gets the ugly person to think about how ugly they really are. Sounds complicated to me, but rules is rules\u2026. It seems that \u201cthrow shade\u201d has been around for more than twenty years and I\u2019m just now noticing it being used. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ll ever be able to catch up \u2014 I\u2019m still learning to \u201ctext.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I\u2019m a little (maybe a lot) out of touch with all the current trends. I\u2019ve noticed lately that some people talk and use words that I\u2019m familiar with, but I don\u2019t understand what … Continue reading
\nSo the insult isn\u2019t a direct criticism or maybe not even a negative comment \u2014 of course it\u2019s not a positive comment either. It’s like a dishonest, or shady comment. As an aside, \u201cno shade\u201d means \u201cno offense meant for what I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n