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Sheen

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sheen¹

  • /ʃiːn/

Rhymes with -iːn

Where it comes from

From Middle English shene, schene, from Old English sċīene (“beautiful, fair, bright, brilliant, light”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaunī, from Proto-Germanic *skauniz (“beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁-.

Cognate with Scots schene, scheine (“beautiful, fair, attractive”), Saterland Frisian skeen (“clean, pure”), West Frisian skjin (“nice, clean”), Dutch schoon (“clean, beautiful, fair”), German schön (“beautiful”), Danish skøn (“beautiful”), Norwegian Bokmål skjønn (“beautiful”), Norwegian Nynorsk skjønn (“beautiful”), Swedish skön (“beautiful, fine”). Compare also the loanword Finnish kaunis (“beautiful”). See also English show.

adjective sheener · sheenest

  1. archaic, poetic, rare, usually Beautiful, good-looking, attractive, fair; bright, radiant; shiny. Up rose each warrier bold and brave, / Glistening in filed steel and armor sheen.
  2. archaic, poetic, rare, usually Clear, pure, clean; noble, illustrious; (by extension) innocent, chaste. […] And all her crystal springs, whence clear and sheen Her brooks receive the wat'ry element, […]

noun sheens

  1. also, countable, figuratively, uncountable Splendor; radiance; shininess. There is a greenish sheen across the shoulders of his greasy black suit, for the morning light has of a sudden begun to dance through the bay window.
  2. countable, uncountable A thin layer of a substance (such as oil) spread on a solid or liquid surface. oil sheen

verb sheens · sheening · sheened

  1. intransitive, poetic, rare To shine; to glisten. This town, / That, sheening far, celestial seems to be.

sheen²

  • /ʃiːn/

Rhymes with -iːn

noun sheens

  1. The letter ش in the Arabic script.

Sheen³

  • /ʃiːn/

Sounds like sheen · Rhymes with -iːn

Where it comes from

From Old English Sceon (“shelter, shed”), from Proto-Germanic *skūrō.

proper noun

  1. An area of Greater London, officially East Sheen.
  2. A village and civil parish in Staffordshire Moorlands district, Staffordshire, England, on the border with Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK1161).
  3. A surname.

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