Other forms: shallower, shallowest
Shallow means not going far down. Shallow water, the shallow end, a shallow dish.
The shallow end of a pool is where children can stand, and the shallows are the shallow parts of a river or sea. Of breathing it means light and quick, which is a clinical sign. Of a person it means lacking depth of thought or feeling — a shallow argument, he is rather shallow — and that is a considerable insult. Note shallow-fry, against deep-fry, and shallow learning against deep learning.
1adjectiveshallowNot going far down.
“The water is shallow here, so small children can paddle safely.”
2adjectivelackingLacking depth of thought or feeling.
“It is a shallow argument dressed up in long words.”
shallow is a quality of depth.
The word appears in Middle English and is probably related to shoal, meaning a shallow place — the two words have swapped forms and meanings over the centuries and nobody has fully separated them.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kelh₁- — to parch, dry out
Proto-Germanic
*skal-
Middle English
schalowe — not deep, shallow
English, today
shallow
Built from
From Middle English schalowe (“not deep, shallow”); apparently related to Middle English schalde, schold, scheld, schealde (“shallow”), from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), from Proto-Germanic skal-, from Proto-Indo-European (s)kelh₁- (“to parch, dry out”). Related to Low German Scholl (“shallow water”). See also shoal.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA