The slang word that I chose to research is the word "shade" or "shady."  There are many uses of this word in everyday English, but the slang definition of shade or shady has a completely different meaning to what most people think about when they hear this word.  The Webster’s II New College Dictionary gives the definition of shade as a cover from the sun or a reduction in light and dark shadows gathering at dusk.  This definition has been used since around the 1500's and is still used today.  Another definition of shady is older than (a specific age); this definition was used in the 1800's to describe someone’s age roughly.  You could say, "She was on the shady side of twenty."  This definition isn't used often today but it is a good example of the word used in a different way other than referring to shadows and light.

                The Oxford English Dictionary gives more complex definitions for the word shade such as; to be in retirement or to be little known.  If you were going to use the word to mean in retirement or little known, you could say; "The woman had to be kept in the shade to hide from her stacker."   If you relate this meaning to the definition that means a shadowed area, you can find a distinct connection.  If the woman was "kept in the shade" she was in a place that would be hard to find her at, just like an object would be hard to find if it were in a dark shadowed area.  Another definition of shade refers to paint or drawings.  When using the word this way you would be describing the darkness or the different colors in a painting or a drawing.  An example of this would be, "The artist used different shades of purple in his art work." Using "shades" this way means that the artist used light purple, medium purple, dark purple, and any "shade" of purple in between.  Another example of shade used in this way could be, "Megan had a good grasp of the concept of shading in her work."  Using the word this way refers to creating the illusion of a shadow using dark colors in a drawing or painting.  These definitions of the word shade are the definitions we are most familiar with.

               The Webster's II New College Dictionary gives the slang definition of shades as sunglasses.  We would wear "shades" if it were sunny out side to block our eyes from the sun, or maybe just as a fashion statement. The word shady has gone through many spelling changes through out history.  Some of these include shadie, shaddy, schade.  By the late 1500's the spelling we use today was the main spelling of the word.

               If someone says the word "shady" you would probably think about an area that 's protected from the sun by a tree or a wall.  My slang definition, on the other hand, is different from that of the definition in most dictionaries.  My definition of shady is someone who is acting backward or sneaky about something.  This is the definition that most young people use today.

                 The slang definition that I use is completely different from the common assumption of the word.  Younger people think of this word as someone who is acting "shady" or who displays "shadiness."  So if I was to say, "The girl was acting shady."  This would indicate that the girl was acting in a manner that was unusual to the way she normally acts.  Now you may be thinking was she sad or angry or depressed, but if you use the word shady, as I did in the sentence, you are simply stating that the girl was acting out in a manner that was almost trying to ignore you.  She was also letting you know that something was wrong or she was mad at you.  It could also mean that she was acting shady because she was hiding something from you or couldn't tell you something for some reason.  There are many different uses for the word shady as a slang word.

                  You can use it to describe someone’s behavior, to tell about the atmosphere of a place you were at, or to describe someone's personality.  I gave one example in the paragraph above to show how the word would be used to describe the behavior of someone.  If you were going to describe a situation, that was shady, you could say, "When I went to the award ceremony the whole experience was shady, everyone there seemed to think of only themselves.'" This is one example of the way the word could be used to describe a situation.  A person whose actions were shady could also mean various things.  If you pass someone and say hello to them and they respond by giving a fake grin and a quick wave of their hand then you could say that the person was acting shady.

                Pretending to be shady is different from behaving shady.  When a person pretends to be shady they may not be doing this because of you. They are usually just joking around and do not mean their actions.  When a person's behavior is shady it is most often towards you; they might make remarks to you to make their 'uncomfortableness' known.  Someone who is shady often alters the truth of things or keeps things secretive.   You could relate this definition to the definition approved by general usage, which means, "to be in retirement" or "little known."  This would be easy to do because someone who is in "retirement" is in hiding so they are hiding the truth from many people to keep their location a secret just like someone who is shady would alter the truth.

               If a shady person makes it known to you that they have a problem they are very rarely going to discuss this problem with you.  They usually like to make you guess.  Shady people very often display their emotions.  Instead they turn their emotions into a personality trait that is unlike the normal.  Some examples of abnormal behavior are hiding your emotions from people, or acting different towards someone you are usually nice to.

                 There are many ways of being shady, most of the time people are just joking around when they are being shady but sometimes people actually portray shadiness as apart of their life styles.  This word is becoming more popular everyday.  It is also being used by more diverse people of different ages and races.  I think this word came to mean what it means to me today like this: take the word shade meaning dim, you could easily relate the slang word shady to the word dim.  If someone is acting shady they could be acting dim or dark towards you.  Shade in shadows creates distortions in reality just like when a person is shady toward you they distort the truth.  Some other words that mean shady are; questionable, vague, dim, shadowy, indistinct, dark, dusky, and shaded.  These words make a connection to the slang definition that I use.  For example; the word questionable means unclear and when a person is acting shady their real emotions are unclear. I did some research on the word shady to see if my definition was the one used by the majority of people, I found that it was but I also found that there was another slang term that I was not aware of.  This slang term is used to describe a walk or car ride in which a person or group of people will be smoking marijuana.  You could say, "Lets go on a shady walk" or "Let’s go on a shady car ride."  This definition isn’t as popular as the one I am most familiar with, but I felt it was necessary to bring into perspective.

               People unknowingly use forms of the word shady (with my definition) all of the time.  Someone could say; "Her description of the word was vague."  The word vague is a synonym to the word shady.  Another example is the word indistinct.  If someone if vague or indistinct about something, they aren’t elaborating on the complexity of the subject.  Therefore they wouldn’t be telling the whole truth about the subject and this would mean that they were being shady.

               There are many limitations when using shady in a conventional way.  The only way to use the word is when you are referring to a dark space or a portion of a painting or drawing.  I feel that taking the word shady and converting it to be used with my definition is an extraordinary display of creativity.  My reasoning behind this is because the word before was only related to places or images, with my definition it now relates to people and their behavior.  This would be like taking the word furry, meaning something that is soft and fuzzy, and converting it to mean the way a person acts or feels when they are happy or in love.  You could do this because the feeling that comes over a person when they are happy is a sense of warmth.  When you picture something furry you might picture an animal or a sweater maybe even a fur coat, but all of these things are warm or create warmth.  That means if someone is having a feeling or warmth they could be feeling "furry."

               I think that all of the definitions are important to apply to the word, but I also think that my definition is somewhat overlooked.  I feel that my slang definition isn’t going to be lapsed from consciousness anytime soon.  A lot of slang words have no longer been in existence in a way.  Consider the words groovy, far-out, or gunk.  Most people rarely use these words.  I hear the word shady used (with my definition) well over once everyday.  The popularity of the word is rising everyday and I believe that it will soon be, and should be, apart of everyone’s vocabulary.

Bethany Brown