to throw shade
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DEFINITION
In North American English, this expression typically means:
VERB PHRASE:
to indirectly insult someone based on perceived fact or knowledge (slang)
HISTORY
This common slang term in North American English first appeared in Anglo-vernaculars during the Black slave trade in the United States of America. It was an expression that was used among slaves to indirectly insult their owners, plantation proprietors, slave traders, racist individuals, etc. Since using direct language to express their discontent and suffering would often result in them being punished, whipped, tortured, or killed, this form of self-expression became a necessity in coping as a slave. It allowed one to express one’s emotions and opinions in a clever way that generally hid the intention behind the message verbalized.
As such, the expression “to throw shade” became so widely used among Black slaves that over time it patterned into an official structure of AAVE (African American Vernacular English), which can still be observed today. Eventually, this structure would evolve further and transition to another oppressed population: the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
In the 1980s, this slang term was commonly used among Black drag queens and eventually other members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. It’s meaning shifted from expressing displeasure in societal mistreatment to humourous insult that acknowledged similar life experiences and social backgrounds:
[…] if I'm a Black queen and you're a Black queen, we can't call each other 'Black queens' because we're both Black queens. That's not a read—that's just a fact. So then, we talk about your ridiculous shape, your saggy face, your tacky clothes… Then reading became a developed form, where it became shade. ‘Shade’ is: I don't tell you you're ugly, but I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly. And that's shade. (Drag queen Dorian Corey, Paris Is Burning, 1991)
By the 2010s, popular reality competition show RuPaul’s Drag Race gained mainstream momentum, catapulting this expression beyond the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to the general public, where it is now also commonly used and heard spoken today by allies–though some community members have no problem with this, others feel that it is inappropriate.
NOTE
This slang term uses the preposition “at” when referring to the person receiving the shade (indirect insult): to throw shade [at + someone].
EXAMPLES
Two overweight friends are having a conversation:
“We can totally have a party at my place if you want, but my door is kinda narrow…”
“Did you just throw shade at me?” (it is general knowledge that this person is overweight, so they are thinking that their friend is commenting on their size)
“No, not at all! Ha! Ha! I’m being serious, actually. My front door is narrower than the average door. It’s a fact. I have problems getting through it. It’s hard to get through for anyone, even my string bean of a landlord; he has to walk through it sideways because his shoulders are too broad.”
A brunette is talking to a blonde:
“You know when you have senioritis in your last year of university and you just can’t give a crap about anything anymore, but you still have finals to study for and pass? Oh! That’s right! Sorry, I guess you wouldn’t understand that…”
“Excuse me! Are you throwing shade right now?” (the blonde thinks that the brunette is referring to the “fact” perceived by society (AKA stereotype) that “all blondes are stupid,” so of course she didn’t go to university, which is why she wouldn’t understand this experience that is being referenced)
“I mean, it’s only shade if you want it to be. I was referring to the fact that you haven’t actually been to university. You chose to travel the world instead after high school.”
“Yeah, but I am enrolled now.”
“Yeah, but you’re only in your first year. You don’t know what senioritis feels like yet.”
“True.”
Have you ever heard this expression be used? What was the context? Where did you hear it? Let me know in the comments below.
