Learn English – Etymology of “embarrass”

etymology

It would seem that the Random House dictionary and the World English dictionary have different ideas about the etymology of the word embarrass, neither of which make it particularly clear as to how it got its current meaning:

Random House
1665–75; < French embarrasser < Spanish embarazar < Portuguese embaraçar, equivalent to em- em-1 + -baraçar, verbal derivative of baraço, baraça cord, strap, noose (of obscure origin)

World English
[C17: (in the sense: to impede): via French and Spanish from Italian imbarrazzare, from imbarrare to confine within bars; see en- 1 , bar 1 ]

So which is correct, and how did it come to have the meaning of making somebody self-conscious and abashed?

Best Answer

Etymonline.com says the meaning of making somebody self-conscious is first recorded in 1828 and shows a French and Italian origin:

1670s, "perplex, throw into doubt," from Fr. embarrasser (16c.), lit. "to block," from embarras "obstacle," from It. imbarrazzo, from imbarrare "to bar," from in- "into, upon" (see in- (2)) + V.L. **barra* "bar." Meaning "hamper, hinder" is from 1680s. Meaning "make (someone) feel awkward" first recorded 1828. Original sense preserved in embarras de richesse (1751), from French (1726): the condition of having more wealth than one knows what to do with.

The OED says the etymology is from "French embarrasser, lit. ‘to block, obstruct’, < embarras" and their first quotation for making someone feel awkward is from Webster's 1828 An American dictionary of the English language.

Here's Webster from 1828 (plain text):

embarass

Q: and how did it come to have the meaning of making somebody self-conscious and abashed?

It originally meant to literally encumber, to hamper or to impede; or to perplex, to confuse. It later then came to the modern meaning, as in OED's definition 2.b.:

To make (a person) feel awkward or ashamed, esp. by one's speech or actions; to cause (someone) embarrassment.

So one's speech or actions are stopping and perplexing the other, which causes the feeling of awkwardness.

Here's some examples from the introduction to Webster's 1828 dictionary that show the different meanings:

  • I found myself embarrassed, at every step, for want of a knowledge of the origin of words

  • Similar contractions have taken place in all other languages; a circum- stance that embarrasses the philologist and lexicographer at every step of his researches; and which has led to innumerable mistakes in Etymology.

  • Lexicographers are often embarrassed to account for the different signifi- cation of words that are evidently derived from the same root.

  • This practice of blending with the English many words of an orthography, which in our language is anomalous, is very embarrassing to readers who know only their vernacular tongue, and often introduces an odious difference between the pronunciation of different classes of people

  • On the other hand, all that I have seen, serve only to obscure and embarrass the subject, by substituting new arrangements and new terms, which are as incorrect as the old ones, and less intelligible.

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