shamefast

shamefast

English

Etymology

From Middle English shamefast, schamefast, schamfast, sceomefest, from Old English sċeamfæst, scamfæst (“modest, shy, bashful”), corresponding to shame +‎ fast.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪmfɑːst/

Adjective

shamefast (comparative more shamefast, superlative most shamefast)

1. (archaic) Bashful, modest; shy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     With chaunge of cheare the seeming simple maid / Let fall her eyen, as shamefast to the earth [...].

   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 141:

     But the women are alwayes covered about their middles with a skin, and very shamefast to be seene bare.

Derived terms

• shamefastly
• shamefastness