So I’ve been noticing this bus stop bench ad which asks, “PREGNANT? EMBARAZADA?” Which set me to thinking … does the Spanish word for “pregnant” really fundamentally mean “embarrassed” (as I started applying all sorts of cultural stereotypes about stodgy / traditionalist / Catholic Spaniards)?
Well, not really. There are some amusing stories one can hear about this false cognate between the two languages, but there is, ultimately, a common root between the two terms which is only metaphorical to either connection.
It is an important characteristic of linguistic borrowing that once a word is ‘borrowed’ into a language, it becomes the possession of that language and its meanings can be changed to suit that language. Even though a word may be borrowed with its meaning intact, with time, words that once meant the same thing in the languages of both borrower and lender drift apart, meanings are dropped, new nuances are added; the words take on an individual life of their own. For example, embarrassed and embarazada came, ultimately, from the same root. Italian imbarrare, meaning ‘to surround with bars’ gave rise to imbarrazzare, which became French embarrasser and Spanish embarazar, meaning ‘to hamper or impede’, and these in turn passed into English — embarrassed.
The original meaning of embarrassed is partly retained in the more old-fashioned sense of ‘in a difficult situation’ and is mainly used to talk euphemistically about financial difficulties. Feeling awkward or disconcerted is now the most frequent sense in English. Meanwhile, the Spanish verb embarazar has retained the original hamper or obstruct sense, but has the additional meaning of to make a woman pregnant. The adjective which is derived from this has only the pregnant sense. Embarazoso is the word to use to translate the English adjective embarrassed.
See? This is the sort of language stuff I love — two words that really mean two different things, but that wound their own separate ways from another word whose meaning you can still see in both.
(For the record, a number of other sources indicate that avergonzado is a better to word to use for “embarrassed” in Spanish.)
At any rate, regarding my particular fondness for lexical trivia, I refuse to be embarrassed.
Niggardly is a good example of that very thing, with disastrous consequences for anyone foolish enough to use it.
Ah, yes. I remember that.
I suppose “embraced” comes from the same source. Which only makes sense; an embrace can lead to embarassment.
Cognates is fun! I once said something in a college Spanish class that I thought was a safe enough cognate, since I was also taking Italian and had a few odds and ends of Latin and French under my belt. My instructor cracked up. Apparently, I had said something very cute, very childish, and very, very raunchy, but she didn’t want to embarass me in front of the others.
Embrace: [Middle English embracen, from Old French embracer : en-, in; + brace, the two arms; see brace.
Embarrass: [French embarrasser, to encumber, hamper, from Spanish embarazar, from Italian imbarazzare, from imbarazzo, obstacle, obstruction, from imbarrare, to block, bar : in-, in (from Latin. See en-1) + barra, bar (from Vulgar Latin *barra).]
So … probably just a false cognate, just as “brass” and “bars” are in English.