shimmer

English

Etymology

From Middle English schimeren, from Old English sċymrian, sċimrian, sċimerian, from Proto-Germanic *skimarōną. Cognate with Dutch schemeren, German schimmern.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪmə(ɹ)/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

shimmer (third-person singular simple present shimmers, present participle shimmering, simple past and past participle shimmered)

1. (intransitive) To shine with a veiled, tremulous, or intermittent light; to gleam faintly.

   Synonyms: twinkle, sparkle, glisten, glimmer

   • (Can we date this quote by Tennyson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     the shimmering glimpses of a stream

Translations

to shine with a veiled light; to gleam faintly; to glisten; to glimmer

• Armenian: առկայծել (hy) (aṙkaycel)
• Dutch: glimmen (nl), glinsteren (nl)
• French: chatoyer (fr)
• German: schimmern (de)
• Greek: λαμπυρίζω (el) (lampyrízo), τρεμοφέγγω (el) (tremoféngo)
• Italian: luccicare (it), rilucere (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: kārohirohi (refers to the atmosphere on a hot day)
• Norwegian: skimre, skimra
• Russian: мерца́ть (ru) (mercátʹ)
• Spanish: titilar (es), cabrillear (es)
• Swedish: skimra (sv)
• Vietnamese: lung linh (vi)
• Westrobothnian:

Noun

shimmer (plural shimmers)

1. A faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining.

   Synonym: glimmer

2. (signal processing) A measure of the irregularities in the loudness of a particular pitch over time.

   Coordinate term: jitter

   • 2010, Daniel R. Boone, The Voice and Voice Therapy, Pearson College Division (→ISBN)

     As such, perturbation measures can only be derived from vowels, most accurately, sustained vowels or steady-state portions of vowels extracted from connected speech. Two commonly obtained perturbation measures are jitter and shimmer.

Translations

faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining; a glimmer

• Dutch: glans (nl) m, glinstering
• French: chatoyement (fr) m, chatoiement (fr) m
• German: Schimmer (de) m, Schimmern (de) n
• Greek: λαμπύρισμα (el) n (lampýrisma), μαρμαρυγή (el) f (marmarygí)
• Irish: loinnir f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: luccichio m
• Russian: мерца́ние (ru) n (mercánije)
• Swedish: skimmer (sv) n
• Vietnamese: lung linh (vi)

Further reading

• “shimmer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “shimmer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.