Embarrassed

How to spell embarrassed

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce embarrassed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embarrassed mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling awkward, self-conscious, or ashamed about something.

Embarrassed in a sentence

• She felt embarrassed when she forgot her colleague's name at the meeting.

• He was embarrassed about the mistake on his tax return.

Where does embarrassed come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the French verb embarrasser, which originally meant 'to block', 'to obstruct', or 'to encumber' rather than to cause social discomfort. The French took it from the Spanish embarazar and the Italian imbarazzare, all of which grew from a root meaning 'to put behind a bar', built on the Latin and Romance word barra, meaning a 'bar' or 'barrier'. The literal idea was of someone hemmed in or hampered by an obstacle, and only later did the sense shift to the inner feeling of being thrown into awkward confusion. English adopted it in the 1600s, first in the sense of hindering or complicating matters, and the emotional meaning of feeling self-conscious settled in during the 1700s. The double r and double s both survive from the French spelling, and remembering that two separate doubled pairs (rr and ss) sit side by side is the key to getting it right. A surprising relative is 'bar' itself, the same humble word that gives us a barrier across a road.

How the word is built

• em- (in, into)
• barrass (from barra: bar, obstacle)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)