Eyeshadow

How to spell eyeshadow

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce eyeshadow

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does eyeshadow mean?

1. nounColoured powder or cream applied to the eyelids as makeup.

Eyeshadow in a sentence

• She swept a shimmer of bronze eyeshadow across her lids before the wedding.

• The makeup palette held twelve shades of eyeshadow in neutral tones.

Where does eyeshadow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern compound made from two of the oldest words in English. 'Eye' descends from the Old English eage, which meant the organ of sight and goes back to a shared Germanic root also seen in German Auge and Dutch oog. 'Shadow' comes from the Old English sceadu, meaning shade or the dark shape cast by something blocking light; the same root gives us the related word 'shade'. The two were joined into a single cosmetic term only in the twentieth century, as coloured powder applied to the eyelids to create the appearance of depth or shading. The spelling is entirely transparent once you see it is just 'eye' plus 'shadow' written together, so the only real trap is remembering to keep the silent letters of both halves intact.

How the word is built

• eye (Old English eage: the organ of sight)
• shadow (Old English sceadu: shade, shadow)