Other forms: overshadowed, overshadowing, overshadows
To overshadow is to make something else seem less important. Overshadowed by his brother, overshadow the announcement, overshadowed the whole day.
It is nearly always passive and nearly always regretful, since being overshadowed is what happens to good work published on a busy news day. The literal sense of casting a shadow is where the image comes from.
1verbovershadowTo make something else seem less important.
“Her brother's success always overshadowed her own achievements.”
overshadow is a eclipsing.
Old English ofersceadwian is over plus shadow.
Middle English
overschadwen
English, today
overshadow
From Middle English overschadwen. From Middle English overschadwen, overschadewe, from Old English ofersċeadwian (“to overshadow”), equivalent to over- + shadow. Compare with West Frisian oerskaduwe (“to overshadow”), Dutch overschaduwen (“to overshadow”), German überschatten (“to overshadow”), Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌳𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (“to overshadow”), and more distantly, Old Norse yfirskyggja (“to overshadow”), Danish overskygge (“to overshadow”), Swedish överskugga (“to overshadow”), Old English ofersċūwan (“to overshadow”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA