<P> This template will no longer automatically categorize articles as candidates to move to Wiktionary . </P> <P> The expressions "throw shade, "throwing shade", or simply "shade", are slang terms used to describe insults . Merriam - Webster defines "shade" as "subtle, sneering expression of contempt for or disgust with someone--sometimes verbal, and sometimes not". OxfordDictionaries.com defines "throw shade" as a phrase used to "publicly criticize or express contempt for someone". </P> <P> The slang version of "shade" originated from the black and Latino gay communities, and was initially strictly used by those communities . The first major use of "shade" that introduced the slang to the greater public was in the documentary film Paris Is Burning (1990), which is about the mid-1980s drag scene in Manhattan . In the documentary, one of the drag queens, Dorian Corey, explains what "shade" means . She says, "Shade is, I don't have to tell you you're ugly, because you know you're ugly ." </P> <P> The expression was popularized by the American reality television series RuPaul's Drag Race . In 2015, Anna Holmes of The New York Times Magazine wrote: </P>

Where does the phrase throwing shade come from