Throwing Shade

Throwing shade means making a pointed insult in an indirect, witty way, often subtle enough to leave room for deniability. The term comes from Black and Latino queer ballroom culture in New York and was documented in the 1990 film Paris Is Burning, where drag legend Dorian Corey explained shade as an evolution of reading: if you did not say something outright ugly but the other person knew you meant it, that was shade. The phrase moved into wider use through RuPaul's Drag Race and reality television in the 2000s and 2010s. It is now common in mainstream slang, though its Black and Latinx queer roots are worth remembering.