vergüenza

Forms

vergüenza f (plural vergüenzas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote verguença, uerguença, vergüença and bergüença, and also vergonça.^[2][3] An Old Spanish vergüeña, in Juan Ruiz, shows another outcome of the same Latin word.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish vergüença, inherited from Latin verēcundia (“restraint, modesty; shame”).^[5][6][1] DICCA-XV takes it from a semi-learned form vergundia.^[7] Bénaben explains the diphthong by a yod from the ending ⟨-dia⟩ that moved into the syllable before it; the resulting /oi/, rare in Spanish, was replaced by a more common diphthong.^[8] García de Diego starts from a base Vulgar Latin *verecunnia, though he grants that the word may come directly from the Latin noun; the same base is assumed for French vergogne.^[4][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese vergonha, Galician vergoña, Asturian vergoña, Catalan vergonya, Occitan vergonha and Italian vergogna.^{[4][1][9][10]} The learned verecundia is a 19th-century borrowing of it.^[5][1]

The Latin noun was formed from verēcundus (“restrained, modest”), from vereor (“to show respect, fear”) with the suffix -cundus.^[11][1][12] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *wer-ē- (“to be wary”) and Proto-Indo-European *u(e)r-eh₁- (“to note, sense”), with cognates such as Old English wær (“careful”).^[12] The same verb gave reverencia.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has the word for disgrace: sacada me avedes de muchas vergüenças malas “you have rescued me from many evil shames”.^[3][13][5] The Cid also uses it for the feeling caused by a fault.^[13] The first record in a contemporary manuscript is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250): ni por uerguença de ninguna persona “nor out of deference to any person”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's legal prose has the four senses that still lead the dictionary: the painful feeling of a fault, the sense of one's own honour, timidity, and a shameful act.^[14] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 used la vergüença de la puerta for Latin anta, the front post of a door, a sense the DLE now marks as obsolete and Bayo found still common in the Americas.^[7][6][15] In the thieves' cant recorded by Hidalgo in 1609 it was a woman's coif.^[16][6]

Mexican texts of 1529–1532 already have the plural for the genitals (no tapan sus vergüenzas) and the punishment sacar a la vergüenza, the public exposure of an offender.^[17][6] In Puerto Rico vergüenza is the name of an ornamental plant, the coleus.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – Cantar de mio Cid (14th-century copy).^[3][5]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy): Non avedes verguença.^[3]
• 1218–1250 – Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record without a later copy.^[3]
• 1251 – the derivative desvergüenza.^[5]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's legal prose distinguishes shame, honour, shyness and a shameful act.^[14]
• 1492 – Nebrija: la vergüença de la puerta, the front post of a door.^[7]
• 1529 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's cant vocabulary: “a woman's coif”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. shame: the distress felt at a fault one has committed or at a dishonourable or humiliating act.^[6][1]
2. embarrassment, shyness: unease caused by timidity, which often holds a person back: Me da vergüenza cantar delante de todos.^[6][1]
3. A sense of one's own honour or dignity: Si tuviera vergüenza, pediría perdón.^[6][19]
4. A thing or person that causes shame or disgrace: Es una vergüenza cómo está el parque.^[6][19]
5. (historical) A punishment that exposed an offender to public shame with a sign of the crime, as in sacar a la vergüenza.^[6][17]
6. (obsolete) The front lath or post of a door.^[6][15]
7. (thieves' cant) A woman's coif.^[6][16]
8. (in the plural) The external genitals of a person.^[6][17]

Word family

• vergonzoso
• vergonzante
• avergonzar
• desvergonzado
• desvergüenza
• sinvergüenza

Related words

• reverencia
• sinvergonzonería
• verecundia
• Portuguese vergonha
• Catalan vergonya

Usage notes

Vergüenza ajena is the embarrassment one feels at what others do or say.^[6] Pasar vergüenza is to be embarrassed, and la de la vergüenza is, in colloquial speech, the last portion left on a shared plate that nobody dares to take.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vergüenza
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. vergüenza
7. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 9, 164
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. vergüenza
15. ^ a b Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando
16. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779)
17. ^ a b c d Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
20. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial