- shy (adj.)
- late Old English sceoh "shy," from Proto-Germanic *skeukh(w)az "afraid" (cf. 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 scuti "to hunt, incite." Italian schivare "to avoid," Old French eschiver "to shun" are Germanic loan-words. The verb meaning "to recoil" first recorded 1640s.
- shy (v.)
- "to throw with a jerk or toss," 1787, colloquial, of unknown origin and uncertain connection to shy (adj.).