This is the allusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, ask language, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

Thumb up in today's show, Cringing and Catharsis.

To set you up for today's episode, here's the history of embarrassment.

The word, not the emotional state, which I imagine, is the exact same age as consciousness.

The word is relatively recent.

The first recorded usage of embarrassed, conveying awkwardness and shame is only from 1828.

Although it had been around a while before that, its first known appearance in English was

Insamial Pips' diary of 1664, when embarrassed meant that there was some kind of hindrance

or blockage or confusion.

English got it from French, which got it from Spanish, in which it now means pregnant.

Perhaps because you're blocked by a baby.

But if you keep going, then it gets tricky.

I've read two theories.

The first that the Spanish embalas are, evolved from the Latin word, barra, a bar.

So you were hindered or imprisoned by bars.

And analogously in the modern sense of embarrassment, you were imprisoned or hindered by your shame.

The second theory is that it's from the Portuguese embalasar, in which the barrasar means a rope

or a noose.

Some people therefore posit that the modern sense of embarrassment comes from the historical

punishment of having to go around wearing a noose, displaying your shame to everybody.

But I think given the journey of the word from Portuguese to 19th century English, this

might be a bit of a leap.

...