show
Definitions
General English
- noun an exhibition, things which are arranged for people to look at
- noun something which is on at a theatre
- verb to let someone see something
- verb to point something out to someone
Commerce
Information & Library Science
- verb to take something to somebody and enable them to see it
Media Studies
- noun a public entertainment, e.g. a theatre performance, film or radio or television programme
Medical
- noun the first discharge of blood at the beginning of childbirth
- verb to cause or allow something to be visible
- verb to provide convincing evidence of something
Travel
- noun a performance, especially with music
- verb to let somebody see something or point out something to somebody
Origin & History of “show”
Show originally meant ‘look at’. Its modern senses – basically ‘cause to look at’ – did not begin to develop until the early middle English period. It comes from a prehistoric west Germanic *skauwōjan, whose German descendant schauen still means ‘look at’ (and whose Flemish descendant scauwen gave English scavenger). this in turn was derived from the base *skau- ‘see, look’, source also of English sheen and German schön ‘beautiful’. And the ultimate ancestor of *skau- was an Indo-European base which also produced Greek keein ‘observe’ and Latin cavēre ‘beware’ (source of English caution (13th c.) and caveat (16th c.)).
