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Shy vs Em - What's the difference?

shy | em |

As nouns the difference between shy and em

is that shy is an act of throwing while em is : The ems and ens at the beginnings and ends.

As an adjective shy

is easily frightened; timid.

As a verb shy

is to avoid due to timidness or caution.

As a pronoun em is

them singular. Gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, coordinate with {{term|him and {{term|her}}.}.

As an interjection em is

a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty; um; umm; erm.

As a proper noun Em is

a diminutive of the female given names Emily and Emma.

shy

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Easily frightened; timid.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • The horses of the army were no longer shy , but would come up to my very feet without starting.
  • Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
    • He is very shy with strangers.
  • * Arbuthnot
    • What makes you so shy , my good friend? There's nobody loves you better than I.
  • Cautious; wary; suspicious.
  • * Boyle
    • I am very shy of using corrosive liquors in the preparation of medicines.
  • * Sir H. Wotton
    • Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of their successors.
  • Short, insufficient or less than.
    • By our count your shipment came up two shy of the bill of lading amount.
    It is just shy of a mile from here to their house.
  • Embarrassed.

    • See also

    * bashful * reserved * timid * demure * coy

    Usage notes

    * Often used in combination with a noun to produce an adjective or adjectival phrase. * Adjectives are usually applicable to animals (leash-shy'' "shy of leashes" or ''head shy "shy of contact around the head" (of horses)) or to children.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * brazen * bold * audacious

    Derived terms

    (terms derived using shy as suffix) * -shy * bird-shy * boy-shy * car-shy * cat-shy * camera-shy * cover-shy * girl-shy * gun-shy * hand-shy * man-shy * mouse-shy * noise-shy * people-shy * water-shy * woman-shy * work-shy

    Verb

  • To avoid due to timidness or caution.
    • I shy away from investment opportunities I don't understand.
  • To jump back in fear.
    • The horse shied''' away from the rider, which startled him so much he '''shied away from the horse.
  • to throw sideways with a jerk; to fling
    • to shy''' a stone; to '''shy a slipper

    Noun

    (shies)
  • An act of throwing.
    • (Thackeray)
  • * Punch
    • If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 55:
    • The game had started. A man was chasing the ball, it went out for a shy .
  • A place for throwing.
    • coconut shy
  • A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
  • In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx.

    • Derived terms

    * coconut shy

    em

    English

    Etymology 1

    The typographic em is named after the metal type for the capital (M) in early printing, whose body was square (the printed letter M is almost never one em in width).

    Noun

    (en noun)
    • The ems and ens at the beginnings and ends.
  • (typography) A unit of measurement equal to the height of the type in use.
    • Synonyms
    * (typography) quad, em quad * (typography) mutton, mut
    Derived terms
    * emcee * em dash

    See also

    *

    Etymology 2

    (Spivak pronouns) Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing the "th" from (them), perhaps influenced by (term, 'em).

    Pronoun

  • (neologism) them (singular).
  • * {{quote-book
    • , date = 1986-04-01 , title = The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX macro package , first = Michael , last = Spivak , location = Providence , publisher = American Mathematical Society , page = 68 , isbn = 0821829998 , id = , lccn = 85007506 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=kXzxAAAAMAAJ&q=up+to+Em+to+indicate+Eir , passage = If the author uses such notation, it should be up to Em to indicate Eir intentions clearly, but there's no harm checking first. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year = 1997 , title = Doom Patrols : A Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism , first = Steven , last = Shaviro , publisher = Serpent's Tail , location = London , isbn = 9781852424305 , lccn = 9668813 , page = 138 , passage = I may become quite intimate with someone, spend hours with em every night, and yet not have the slightest idea what eir voice sounds like, or what eir RL body looks, feels, and smells like. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year = 2000 , chapter = Ethics, Plugged and Unplugged: The Pegagogy of Disorderly Conduct , first = Jane , last = Love , title = Taking flight with OWLs: Examining Electronic Writing Center Work , editors = Inman, James A.; Sewell, Donna N. , publisher = Taylor & Francis , isbn = 0805831711 , id = , page = 193 , passage = E invites em to consider how ey represent emselves(SIC), and in so doing, e focuses eir attention on the ethics that make human relations possible. , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=aFKqSzIxCLkC&pg=PA193 }}
  • * {{quote-web
    • , date = 2011-03-15 , title =
  • 89: New Friend
    • , blog = Riot Nrrd , first = RJ , last = Edwards , url = http://www.riotnrrdcomics.com/2011/03/89-new-friend/ , accessdate = 2012-10-06 , passage = And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em . }}
    Synonyms
    * him or her, * (singular) them * (neologism) hir
    Derived terms
    * (neologism) emself

    See also

    * other gender-neutral pronouns

    Etymology 3

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (Scotland, Ireland) a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty; um; umm; erm
    • She was going to, em ... the salon, I think.

    Anagrams

    * English two-letter words English third person pronouns ----