embarrass and embarrassment and embarrasser and hindrance and difficulty and perplexity

One of the most embarrassing things about language is when you think you know what a word means but then are repeatedly brought up against a different and unfamiliar usage of the term--a usage which turns out to be better attested than the usage you assumed was the "only one" there was. Well, I will take this out of the stratosphere and come right down to earth. I was embarrassed to learn that the way I used "embarrass" in conversation and writing, though correct, was so limited as to be misleading.

Getting Acquainted with "Embarrass"

The definition of "embarrass" or "embarrassment" with which I have been living most of my life is definition 2b in the OED: "to make (a person) feel awkward or ashamed, esp. by one's speech or actions; to cause (someone) embarrassment." Though the first attestation of embarrass in this way comes from as recently as 1897, that quotation, at least as the OED presents it, doesn't give us enough information to confirm that the meaning actually is "awkward." The 1929 quotation removes all doubt: "His unordered moods gave him the churlishness of a schoolboy; his silliness embarrassed her" (i.e., made her feel awkward or ashamed).

But then, as is often the case, I was doing some reading in 19th century law, and in an 1871 case on early trademark law, I came across the following:

"could any one prevent all others from using them (i.e., generic geographical designations for products, such as 'Virginia tobacco' or 'Pennsylvania wheat'), or from selling articles produced in the districts they describe under those appellations, it would greatly embarrass trade..." (80 US at 324).

This quotation sent me scurrying to the dictionary, and here is what I found.

Other Meanings of Embarrass

"Embarrass" is derived from the French, where embarrasser means to "block" or "obstruct." Thus, the first meaning in the OED, going back to 1683 is "to encumber, hamper, impede (movements, actions, persons moving or acting). "The Character of Ambassador, which would delay or embarrass me with Preparations of Equipage." Or, from 1734, "Hannibal..ran to the assistance of his troops, who were thus embarrassed." One might also say, in 19th century form, that the contours of the country would embarrass the enemy to a considerable degree. This doesn't mean that it would make them feel ashamed of themselves; it suggests, rather that it would set up a road block, an impediment, a hindrance, a difficulty.

Though the OED also lists as definitions "to perplex, throw into doubt or difficulty" and "to render difficult or intricate; to complicate (a question, etc.)," the significant idea communicated by the word is the hindrances that are presented by a situation. From Bishop Butler's works (1736): "One irregularity after another embarrasses things to such a degree, that..." Or, also from the 18th century, "The king embarrassed with these difficulties..calls a great council."*

[*When doing some research on 12/31/05 in a 19th century law treatise, I read this first line of the preface: "The republication of the following pages, which have been several months out of print, has been embarrassed and delayed by afflicting events in the author's family," in Thomas W. Waterman, A Treatise on the Law of Set-off, Recoupment, and Counterclaim (2d, ed., 1872. Another example of embarrass as obstruct.]

Derived from these usages is also an interesting meaning of embarrass or embarrassment to suggest "difficulties" because of pecuniary lacks. From 1880: "He managed to run through a splendid fortune and die in embarrassment." Granted, such a person might have been ashamed of himself for so sawing through family assets, but the true meaning of the use of embarrassment here only relates to his impecuniousness.

Wandering Around

I thought it might be helpful, in order to understand how much of a limited historical tube we occupy today, to do a word search with the following parameters. I studied the number of times the word "embarrass" appeared in appellate legal cases, either federal or state, in America before 1880. That is, I wanted to get out of our "twentieth century" mentality to see if there were any patterns regarding the way the word was used in that era. There were 356 cases in which the word embarrass appears. In the brief remainder of this essay I will give a few of these usages. My point? That all of them, without exception, point to the use of embarrass as hinder, perplex or obstruct and not to shame or feel awkward.

Here are a few instances. From an 1874 Supreme Court case, adjudicating the damages arising from a collision at sea between the schooner Sarah and the steamer Sea Gull (90 US 165), we have:

"Vessels with sails being required to keep their course the duty of adopting the necessary measures of precaution to keep out of the way is devolved upon the steamer, subject only to the condition that the sail-ship shall keep her course and do no act to embarrass the steamer in her efforts to perform her duty" (90 US at 174).

This is a clear example of embarrass as hinder or obstruct.

It is not as if we have to limit embarrassment to steamers. In a criminal case in the following term, the Court could say:

"This is a criminal case. The motion to advance is made on behalf of the United States, upon the representation of the Postmaster-General, in substance, that the questions in dispute will embarrass the operations of the government..." (91 US at 558).

Countless other examples of people "embarrassing" the operations of the government can be cited. Let me close with one more. In a Supreme Court case from 1879 that I promise you will never be read or cited by anyone in the next 20 years, because it had to deal with the construal of the Iowa mechanics lien statute, the Court said:

"It is obvious that this notice to the owner of the property is for the purpose of enabling him to protect himself in his dealings with the principal contractor, so that he shall neither overpay the amount of the contract with the sub-contractor, nor embarrass himself by having to deal with two contractors" (101 US at 449).

Here, as is evident, embarrass has to do with becoming impoverished.

Conclusion

This little essay could easily lead us in a number of other directions, from researching the use of the term more widely in court cases, to getting lost in the points of law that those cases taught, to understanding the nature of American law in a period through the use of words, to finding loads of other words to examine historically. The possibilities, indeed, are nearly endless. But time embarrasses me now, and I must stop.

1499