sheen

Etymology 1

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.

adj

1. (rare, poetic) Beautiful, good-looking, attractive; radiant; shiny.
   Where the fountains glisten sheenest […] (ch. 12). 1814, Walter Scott, Waverley

noun

1. (also figurative) 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. 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan
   Mr. Leerhsen said in an interview that he wanted to write a book without the dutiful sheen of what he called “an official Bourdain product.” 2022-09-27, Kim Severson, “The Last, Painful Days of Anthony Bourdain”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. A thin layer of a substance (such as oil) spread on a solid or liquid surface.
   oil sheen
   Perhaps the simplest of sauces is the pat of butter dropped on a heap of hot vegetables, or stirred into rice or noodles, or drawn across the surface of an omelet or steak to give a sheen. 2004, Harold McGee, chapter 1, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
   Take the floating scum or oil sheen prohibitions. A discharger or an inspector simply can look to see if scum, or an oil sheen, is coming from a particular discharge. Assume an oil sheen begins at a discharge—is the sheen caused by that […] 2017, Jeffrey Miller, Ann Powers, Introduction to Environmental Law: Cases and Materials on Water Pollution Control, West Academic

verb

1. (rare, intransitive, poetic) To shine; to glisten.

Etymology 2

noun

1. The letter ش in the Arabic script.