different between unseen vs shady

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?si?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English unsen, unseyn, unseien, from Old English un?esewen, from Proto-Germanic *unsewanaz, equivalent to un- +? seen. Cognate with Dutch ongezien (“unseen”), German Low German unsehn (“unseen”), German ungesehen (“unseen”).

Adjective

unseen (not comparable)

1. Not seen or discovered; invisible.
   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9:

     You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 3:

     Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.
2. Unskilled; inexperienced.
3. Not hitherto noticed; unobserved.
   • ca. 1594', William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act I, sc. 2:

     I to the world am like a drop of water

     That in the ocean seeks another drop,

     Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,

     Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.

Derived terms

• sight unseen

Translations

Etymology 2

un- +? seen

Verb

unseen

1. past participle of unsee

   What has been seen cannot be unseen.

Noun

unseen (plural unseens)

1. An examination involving material not previously seen or studied.

   I have French and Latin unseens this summer.

English

Etymology

From shade +? -y. Compare Saterland Frisian skaadich, skaddich (“shady”), German schattig (“shady”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?di/
• Rhymes: -e?di

Adjective

shady (comparative shadier, superlative shadiest)

1. Abounding in shades.
2. Causing shade.

   • The shady trees cover him with their shadow.

3. Overspread with shade; sheltered from the glare of light or sultry heat.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Building

     you may have rooms both for summer and winter; shady for summer, and warm for winter

4. (informal) Not trustworthy; disreputable.

   He is a shady character.

   • 2009: Stuart Heritage, Hecklerspray, Friday the 22^nd of May in 2009 at 1 o’clock p.m., “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”

     Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a show based on two facts: 1) Jon and Kate Gosselin have eight children, and 2) the word ‘Kate’ rhymes with the word ‘eight’. One suspects that if Kate were ever to have another child, a shady network executive would urge her to put it in a binbag with a brick and drop it down a well. But this is just a horrifying tangent.

5. (Britain, slang) Mean, cruel.

   Don't be shady, give us a go.

Synonyms

• (not trustworthy): corrupt, dodgy, dubious, equivocal, seedy, sketchy, suspicious

Translations

Anagrams

• dashy