Embarazada

The correct way to say "I'm embarrassed" in Spanish is with the phrase tengo vergüenza (meaning "I have shame") or the more formal phrases me da vergüenza or estoy avergonzado/a.[1] Yet, in Spanish, there also exists the adjective embarazoso, meaning the same as "embarrassing" in its denotation of something that causes a sensation of unease, but not of shame.[2] Complicating the issue further, embarazada can sometimes also mean "hampered", or "hindered".[3] This more closely mirrors the original meaning of the English word embarrass.[4]

The English word embarrassed is indirectly derived from the Spanish word. The first recorded usage of embarrass in English was in 1664 by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The word was derived from the French word embarrasser, "to block" or "to obstruct", or figuratively, "to put one in a difficult situation".[4] The first recorded usage was by Michel de Montaigne in 1580. The French word was derived from the Spanish embarazar, whose first recorded usage was in 1460 in Cancionero de Stúñiga (Songbook of Stúñiga) by Álvaro de Luna.[5]

The Spanish word likely comes from the Portuguese embaraçar (used in the same context of English embarrassment), which probably is a combination of the prefix em- (from Latin in- for "in-") with baraça "a noose", or "rope", which makes sense with the synonym encinta ("on noose, on rope" because of the old usage of women to wear a strap of cloth on their dresses when pregnant).[6] Baraça originated before the Romans began their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC.[5] Thus, baraça could be related to the Celtic word barr, "tuft". (Celtic people actually settled much of Spain and Portugal beginning in the 700s BC, the second group of Indo-European language speakers to do so.)[7] However, it certainly is not directly derived from it, as the substitution of r for rr in Iberian Romance languages was not a known occurrence.

Some say the Spanish word actually came from the Italian imbarazzare, from imbarazzo, "obstacle" or "obstruction". That word came from imbarrare, "to block" or "to bar", which is a combination of in-, "in", with barra, "bar" (from the Vulgar Latin barra, which is of unknown origin).[5] The problem with this theory is that the first known usage of the word in Italian was by Bernardo Davanzati (1529-1606), long after the word had entered Spanish.[8] Thus, modern scholars believe that the Italian word actually came from the Spanish one.[9] and in Italian imbarazzare has the precise meaning of "to embarrass" in English.

When Parker Pen entered the Mexican market, its advertisements, which claimed that Parker Pens "won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you", were mistranslated to "No te embarazará chorreándose en tu bolsillo", which means "Won't leak in your pocket and impregnate you".[10]

• The comic Married to the Sea refers to the mistranslation in the February 28, 2009, comic. The text reads (with English translations given in parentheses) "Hey, look back up at number 3... you want to use 'avergonzada' (embarrassed) there. You put 'yo estoy embarazada.' (I am pregnant.) You better not be embarazada, Julie, because yo no quiero ser a fuckin' abuela (I don't want to be a fuckin' grandma) at thirty-nine."[11]
• On the ABC sitcom Modern Family, Gloria is upset that her son Manny is forgetting his Spanish. Manny tells his mother: "Yo soy embarazada." This not only refers to the mistranslation, but also has Manny using the incorrect verb for "to be", ser, which is used for characteristics of a person or object, rather than conditions, such as one's being pregnant. Gloria points out his mistake.
• In a season 6 episode of the animated series King of the Hill titled "Lupe's Revenge" (2001), the character Peggy Hill tells a judge in a courtroom in Mexico that she is "muy embarazada".[12]

• Spanglish