shine v.

also monkeyshines, "monkeyish behavior, tricks, pranks, antics," U.S. slang, 1832 (in the "Jim Crow" song), from monkey (n.) + shine (n.) "a caper, trick" (1835), from an American English slang sense perhaps related to the expression cut a shine "make a fine impression" (1819); see slang senses under shine (n.). For sense of the whole word, compare Old French singerie "disreputable behavior," from singe "monkey, ape."

Also compare monkey business"foolish or deceitful conduct," attested by 1858; one early source from England describes it as a "native Indian term," but the source might be that alluded to in, among other places, this contemporary account given by a professional strongman:

After Gravesend I came up to London, and went and played the monkey at the Bower Saloon. It was the first time I had done it. There was all the monkey business, jumping over tables and chairs, and all mischievous things; and there was climbing up trees, and up two perpendicular ropes. I was dressed in a monkey's dress; it's made of some their hearth rugs; and my face was painted. It's very difficult to paint a monkey's face. I've a great knack that way, and can always manage anything of that sort. [Mayhew, "London Labour and the London Poor," 1861]

Middle English blechen, from Old English blæcan, of cloth or fabric, "to make white by removing color, whiten" (by exposure to chemical agents or the sun), from Proto-Germanic *blaikjan "to make white" (source also of Old Saxon blek, Old Norse bleikr, Dutch bleek, Old High German bleih, German bleich "pale;" Old Norse bleikja, Dutch bleken, German bleichen "to make white, cause to fade"), from PIE root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn," also "shining white."

The same root probably produced black (q.v.), perhaps because both black and white are colorless, or because both are associated in different ways with burning. For the contrary senses, compare Old English scimian, meaning both "to shine" and "to dim, grow dusky, grow dark," which is related to the source of shine.

The intransitive sense of "become white" is from 1610s. Related: Bleached; bleaching. The past participle in Middle English was sometimes blaught.