Word of the Day

: October 27, 2023

shill

verb SHIL

What It Means

Shill is an informal word that is used disapprovingly to mean “to talk about or describe someone or something in a favorable way for pay.” It is usually paired with for.

// It’s very common to see influencers shilling for different brands on their social media accounts.

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shill in Context

“The NFT market isn’t so hot these days. In June, Bloomberg reported that the JPG NFT Index was down more than 30 percent since its launch in April. ... Most of the celebs who had shilled for NFTs have gone back to promoting an upcoming project ... or appear to be on vacation.” — Lauren Goode, Wired, 3 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?

The action at the heart of the verb shill—promoting someone or something for pay—is not, on its face, unseemly. After all, that is what marketers and public relations firms do. But when someone is said to be shilling for something or someone there is a distinct note of disapproval, and often the implication that the act is somehow corrupt or dishonest, or that the product or person being promoted is not to be trusted. This connotation is actually the word’s birthright: in the early 1900s, the noun shill referred to a type of con artist, specifically one who aided others in their efforts to part people from their money. For example, a shill might be paid to fake a big win at a casino to make a game look easily winnable. The first uses of the verb shill, appearing around the same time as the noun, show it applying to the kinds of cons shills did, but the term eventually came to be used in cases when someone was simply promoting someone or something. Perhaps fitting for a word with a criminal past, shill has a mysterious origin: it’s thought to be a shortened form of the older synonymous term shillaber, but the etymological trail goes cold there.