{"id":8600,"date":"2005-09-30T08:52:53","date_gmt":"2005-09-30T15:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/09\/30\/embarrassed.html"},"modified":"2005-09-30T08:52:53","modified_gmt":"2005-09-30T15:52:53","slug":"embarrassed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/09\/30\/embarrassed.html","title":{"rendered":"Embarrassed"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’ve been noticing this bus stop bench ad which asks, “PREGNANT? EMBARAZADA?<\/em>” 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)?<\/p>\n

Well, not really. There are some amusing stories<\/a> one can hear about this false cognate between the two languages, but there is, ultimately, a common root<\/a> between the two terms which is only metaphorical to either connection.<\/p>\n

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 <\/em>and embarazada <\/em>came, ultimately, from the same root. Italian imbarrare, <\/em>meaning ‘to surround with bars’ gave rise to imbarrazzare, <\/em>which became French embarrasser <\/em>and Spanish embarazar, <\/em>meaning ‘to hamper or impede’, and these in turn passed into English — embarrassed.<\/em><\/p>\n

The original meaning of embarrassed <\/em>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 <\/em>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 <\/em>is the word to use to translate the English adjective embarrassed.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

(For the record, a number of other sources indicate that avergonzado <\/em>is a better to word to use for “embarrassed” in Spanish.)<\/p>\n

At any rate, regarding my particular fondness for lexical trivia, I refuse to be embarrassed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46228,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/04\/translating-words-across-europe.html","url_meta":{"origin":8600,"position":0},"title":"Translating words across Europe","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Nov-14 4:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a very spiffy little site. Enter in an English word, and see the most common translated word in a variety of European nations. Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger: Here's an interesting site, via +Laura Gibbs: it uses Google Translate to show you the translations of any word across\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2250,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/19\/a_ripping_tale.html","url_meta":{"origin":8600,"position":1},"title":"A Ripping Tale of Terror!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 19-Jul-02 3:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Young Indian actress, well-known there, is flying on a commercial jet liner with her family, arriving for the first time in New York City. 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They won\u2019t even say it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25304,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/11\/tweets-from-2012-01-11.html","url_meta":{"origin":8600,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2012-01-11","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Jan-12 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No snow when I got up, light dusting by time I left, coming down steadily at the train station. # Just climbed out of my office cave and past high cube walls and saw the snow swirling by. I am so looking forward to having a window again. # Trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2492,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/14\/the_n_word.html","url_meta":{"origin":8600,"position":5},"title":"The N Word","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Jun-02 6:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm fascinated by language -- by how we use it, by how it shapes us, by how we shape it. 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