shamefast
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English shamefast, schamefast, schamfast, sceomefest, from Old English sċamfæst (“modest”), corresponding to shame + fast.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
shamefast (comparative more shamefast, superlative most shamefast)
- (archaic) Bashful, modest; shy.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- With chaunge of cheare the seeming simple maid / Let fall her eyen, as shamefast to the earth [...].
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 141:
- But the women are alwayes covered about their middles with a skin, and very shamefast to be seene bare.
Derived terms edit
Middle English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Old English sċamfæst, equivalent to shame + fast.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
shamefast
Descendants edit
- English: shamefast
- Scots: schamefast, schamfast
- Yola: shaamfasth, shaamfast
References edit
- “shāmefast(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.