ashamed

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ashamed, inherited from Old English āscamod, also āsceamod,^[2][3][4][5] the past participle of āscamian (“to feel shame; to put to shame”),^[3][6][7] formed from the intensive prefix ā- and scamian (“to be ashamed, blush; to cause shame”),^[5][3][4] from scamu (“shame”), the source of shame.^[8][4] The OED thinks it probably also absorbed gesceamod and Middle English yschamed,^[9] and Weekley notes that forms with the prefixes ge- and of- also occur early.^[10] Etymonline and the OED compare German erschämen and erschämt.^[5][9] The verb ashame itself is obsolete, but its past participle lives on.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Affected with shame, abashed by a sense of guilt or error: in the Old English poem Christ III,^[9] where, in Bosworth–Toller's rendering, the ashamed "wander abashed in giddiness".^[6] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 1000,^[11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to before the 12th century.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive verb ashame, to feel shame, is last recorded in 1566, and Ayto dates its death to the 16th century; a transitive ashame, to put to shame, appears from 1591.^[9][8] The participle survived as an adjective and gained its constructions in Middle English: ashamed of the cause, from 1250 in Laȝamon's Brut, and formerly also for or on it;^[9][13] ashamed that, with a clause, from 1303 in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne;^[9] and ashamed to do something, reluctant through fear of shame, which Etymonline dates to about 1300 and the OED first finds in the Wycliffite Bible of 1382.^[5][9] Chaucer used it 13 times, with the senses disgraced, embarrassed and also diffident or fearful.^[14] Johnson (1755) defined it as "touched with shame", noting that of usually comes before the cause.^[15] It is still used mainly after a verb; attributive use, as in an ashamed face, has been rare since the 18th century and is archaic.^[9][12][13]

Timeline

• before 1000 – feeling shame, abashed.^[11][9]
• 1250 – ashamed of the cause of shame, in Laȝamon's Brut.^[9]
• c. 1300 – reluctant through fear of shame to do something.^[5] The OED's first quotation for it is from the Wycliffite Bible of 1382.^[9]
• 1303 – with a clause, ashamed that…, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[9]
• 1414 – with a negative, not deterred by shame from doing something.^[9]
• c. 1746 – in attributive use (rare, now archaic).^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Feeling shame, guilt or embarrassment over something one has done: He was ashamed of the way he had spoken to his brother.^[16][12][9]
2. Feeling inferior or uncomfortable on account of a person or thing: She was never ashamed of her family's poverty.^[16][12]
3. Unwilling to do something for fear of shame or humiliation: I'm ashamed to say I forgot the meeting.^[16][12][9]

Word family

• ashamedly
• ashamedness
• unashamed

Related words

• shame

Usage notes

The word is usually used after a verb rather than before a noun.^[12][13][16] Dictionary.com distinguishes it from its near-synonyms: ashamed stresses one's own responsibility for a foolish, improper or immoral act, humiliated a feeling of being humbled or disgraced without any implied guilt, and mortified a stronger form of either feeling.^[17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House