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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL2 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Sham”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
ShamEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
It could be from Arabic شَام (šām, literally “Syria”), from which it spread also to Gujarat. Perhaps also an altered spelling of French Cham.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗shamEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Probably a dialectal form of shame. Alternatively, sham is a term that is used to describe the bottom thick base of a glass, usually a wine or stem glass, where the stem meets the bulbous shape bowl. Glass manufacturers would increase the "sham" to deceive customers into thinking a glass holds more than it actually does. For example, a manufacturer would mold a 12oz glass with a larger "sham" in the base to reduce the volume of the glasses to fit 10-11oz of liquid. By increasing the bulge in the base, usually where the stem meets the glass, it is almost impossible to visually distinguish the difference. This gives the illusion the glass size is the same as any another 12oz glass, but the inside will hold a lesser volume. Later, bringing use to the term "you got shammed" when one party tries to hide something and/or get over on the other party using deceiving tactics.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Browse the independently attributed sources →013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
nounheadword prefix
shaman
English shaman, recorded by 1698, is ultimately from Evenki šamān. European scholarship later generalized one Siberian term across many unrelated spiritual traditions.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbdossier summary
humiliate
To reduce someone in their own or others’ estimation, causing shame or loss of dignity; from Late Latin forms meaning to make low or humble.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
humiliation
The act, state, or instance of humiliating or being humiliated; degradation, disgrace, or shame.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗024
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
shaman
a spiritual practitioner described in English by the generalized term shaman
- DATE
- 1698–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
humiliate
reduce to a lower position in one’s own or others’ eyes; cause shame or embarrassment
- DATE
- circa 1534–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
humiliation
act, state, or instance of humiliating; degradation, disgrace, or shame
- DATE
- 14th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Tocharian B / Indo-European
kwīpe
shame; modesty; woman comparison
- DATE
- Tocharian B
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 0
035
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
openproposedword prefix
Does Evenki šamān securely descend from Sanskrit śramaṇa?
The resemblance and Central Asian transmission routes have motivated a hypothesis, but direct evidence connecting the Buddhist term to the Evenki word remains insufficient.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did humiliation always center disgrace and shame?
No. Christian Latin and historical French include lowering, abasement, mortifying discipline, and self-humbling. Chaucer’s Middle English occurrence appears within a treatment of humility, while current American Heritage definitions center degradation, disgrace, and shame.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
RANK 11GRADE Aranked-word prefix
It was never humanity’s universal ancient name for spiritual practitioners.
English globalized a specific Evenki term through European scholarship and applied it to many unrelated traditions.
RANK 16GRADE Aranked reveal
Humiliation is evidenced in English before humiliate.
Chaucer’s Middle English humiliacioun occurs in a humility passage; Merriam-Webster reports the English verb humiliate only circa 1534. Christian Latin and French preserve lowering, abasement, mortification, and self-humbling before current definitions center degradation, disgrace, and shame.
RANK 135GRADE Aranked reveal
Humiliate is historically to make low.
Late Latin humiliāre means to make low or humble and grows from humilis, low or near the ground, which is formed from humus, earth. Modern shame and loss of dignity sit on that lowering history.
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BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
historical dictionary5 CLAIM LINKS
Shaman — Word History
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly article5 CLAIM LINKS
A Note on the Word “Shaman” in Old Turkic
Peter Zieme / 2008
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly book4 CLAIM LINKS
The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination
Andrei A. Znamenski / 2007
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly lexicographic note3 CLAIM LINKS
چا — Urdu spelling history of the tea word
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi / 2026
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
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