Shame

How to spell shame

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce shame

What does shame mean?

1. nounA painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by wrongdoing or failure; also something regrettable.
2. verbTo make someone feel ashamed or humiliated.

Shame in a sentence

• noun

  He felt deep shame after lying to his colleagues.

• verb

  The article tried to shame the politician into resigning.

• noun

  It is a real shame that the concert was cancelled.

• verb

  Managers should never shame staff in front of customers.

Where does shame come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English scamu, which named the painful feeling of disgrace or humiliation. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic root skamo, shared with the German Scham and Dutch schaamte, all carrying the same idea of being exposed or covered in dishonour. Some scholars connect this Germanic root to a still older sense of 'to cover oneself', which fits the instinct to hide when embarrassed. The spelling settled with the silent final 'e' after the great vowel shift stretched the short vowel of scamu into the long 'a' we now hear. Across the centuries the word kept both its strong sense of moral disgrace and its lighter everyday use for something simply regrettable, as in 'what a shame'.

How the word is built

• shame (single Old English root; no prefix or suffix)