Etymologically
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embarrass

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪmˈbæɹəs/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French embarrasser, also embarasser,[2][3][4] which according to the OED is from Spanish embarazar, recorded from about 1460, itself probably from Portuguese embaraçar, formed from em- and baraço (“cord, halter”).[2][5][4][6][7] According to the OED the Portuguese verb probably first referred to animals held back by a cord or leash, and the further origin of baraço is uncertain and disputed.[2] Etymonline, Barnhart, Klein and the American Heritage Dictionary instead trace the French verb, through Spanish or directly, to Italian imbarazzare or imbarazzo (“obstacle”), from imbarrare (“to bar, block”), formed from in- (“in, into”) and Vulgar Latin *barra (“bar”), so that it would mean "to put behind bars".[3][8][9][10][11] The OED takes the Italian verb, recorded from before 1600, as itself a borrowing from Spanish.[2] Weekley gives both the Italian and the Spanish verb, and Skeat only the Spanish one.[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hamper or impede a person, an action or a process: 1578, in a document printed by the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.[2][5] Etymonline and Barnhart, who do not have this record, start with "to perplex, throw into doubt" in the 1670s (1672 in Barnhart).[3][8]

Semantic evolution

According to the OED the French verb was probably first used in the Spanish Netherlands, and already meant to put someone in an awkward situation in the 16th century.[2] In English the first sense was "to hamper, impede",[2][14][11] and the idea of being hindered by difficulties led to the use of embarrassed for being short of money (1777),[2][14] which Ayto sees as the main survival of the old meaning.[11] The sense "to perplex, confuse" followed in the mid 17th century.[2][8] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to perplex; to distress; to entangle".[15] The modern sense, to make someone feel awkward or self-conscious, is dated 1751 by the OED,[2] but only from 1809 by Etymonline, and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins places it in the early 19th century;[3][14] the OED calls it the usual sense today.[2] The older sense survives in the French phrase embarras de richesse, too much wealth to know what to do with, recorded in English from 1751.[3]

Timeline

  • 1578 – to hamper or impede.[2][5]
  • c. 1656 – to perplex or confuse.[2]
  • 1672 – to throw into doubt, shame, perplex.[8][16]
  • 1676 – embarrassment, a hindrance.[8][16]
  • 1684 – to complicate a matter.[2]
  • 1735 – to obstruct a road or river.[2]
  • 1738 – to burden with an overwhelming abundance, usually in the passive.[2]
  • 1751 – to make someone feel awkward or self-conscious.[2]
  • 1777 – of a debt: to cause financial difficulties.[2]
  • 1839 – to make a government or person look incompetent; to humiliate.[2]
  • 1936 – intransitive, to feel embarrassed.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make someone feel awkward, self-conscious or ashamed: Her brother's jokes embarrassed her in front of her friends.[17][5][2]
  2. To make a person, organization or government look foolish or incompetent; to humiliate.[2][18]
  3. Usually in the passive: to cause financial difficulties: The firm was embarrassed by its debts.[17][18][2]
  4. To feel embarrassed (intransitive): He doesn't embarrass easily.[17][2]
  5. (archaic) To hamper or impede; to obstruct.[17][18][2]
  6. (archaic) To make a matter difficult or confused; to complicate.[17][2]

Word family

  • embarrassedly
  • embarrassingly
  • embarrassable
  • disembarrass
  • embarrassment

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press