Embarrassment
Embarrassment or awkwardness is an emotional state that is associated with mild to severe levels of discomfort, and which is usually experienced when someone commits (or thinks of) a socially unacceptable or frowned-upon act that is witnessed by or revealed to others. Frequently grouped with shame and guilt, embarrassment is considered a "self-conscious emotion", and it can have a profoundly negative impact on a person's thoughts or behavior.[1]
For other uses, see Embarrassment (disambiguation).Etymology[edit]
The first known written occurrence of embarrass in English was in 1664 by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The word derives from the French word embarrasser, "to block" or "obstruct",[7] whose first recorded usage was by Michel de Montaigne in 1580. The French word was derived from the Spanish embarazar, whose first recorded usage was in 1460 in Cancionero de Stúñiga (Songbook of Stúñiga) by Álvaro de Luna.[8] The Spanish word comes from the Portuguese embaraçar, which is a combination of the prefix em- (from Latin im- for "in-") with baraço or baraça, "a noose" or "rope".[9] Baraça originated before the Romans began their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC.[8] Thus, baraça could be related to the Celtic word barr, "tuft". (Celtic people actually settled much of Spain and Portugal beginning in the 8th century BC)[10] However, it certainly is not directly derived from it, as the substitution of r for rr in Ibero-Romantic languages was not a known occurrence.
The Spanish word may come from the Italian imbarazzare, from imbarazzo, "obstacle" or "obstruction". That word came from imbarrare, "to block" or "bar", which is a combination of in-, "in" with barra, "bar" (from the Vulgar Latin barra, which is of unknown origin).[8] The problem with this theory is that the first known usage of the word in Italian was by Bernardo Davanzati (1529–1606), long after the word had entered Spanish.[11]
In Judaism[edit]
Embarrassing another person is considered to be a serious sin in Judaism. Rabbis quoted in the Babylonian Talmud state that embarrassing another person in public is akin to murder (literally "spilling blood"). Rabbi Naḥman bar Yitzḥak responds by noting how the analogy of "spilling blood" is apt since, when a person is embarrassed, their face becomes less flushed and more pale (after the initial flush).[12]
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