Everything about Embarazada totally explained
Embarazada (IPA [embaɾa'θað̞a] or [embaɾa'sað̞a]) is the
Spanish word for pregnant. It is a
false friend for native English-speaking students of Spanish who may attempt to say "I'm embarrassed" by saying "
estoy embarazada." This phrase actually means "I'm pregnant" in Spanish. This may be confusing to Spanish speakers who are not familiar with the English word, even more so when said by a man.
When
Parker Pen entered the
Mexican market, its
advertisements which claimed that Parker Pens "won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you" was
mistranslated as saying they "won't leak in your pocket and impregnate you".
1
The correct way to say "I'm embarrassed" in Spanish is using the phrase
tengo vergüenza (meaning "I have shame") or the more formal phrases
me da vergüenza or
estoy avergonzado.
2 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.
3 Complicating the issue further,
embarazada can sometimes also mean "hampered", or "hindered".
4 This more closely mirrors the original meaning of the English word
embarrass.
5
Grammar
Embarazada is a
past participle, meaning that it indicates a state resulting from a previous action. In English, past participles usually end in
-ed (for example,
destroyed), and
embarazado therefore translates directly into English as "impregnated". It is a conjugated form of
embarazar "to impregnate". As the word
embarazado is masculine, it's rarely encountered in Spanish. It is more common for the word
embarazada to be used to describe pregnancy. However,
embarazado can be used as a past participle in perfect tenses, as in: "Javier ha embarazado a María." (Javier has impregnated María.)
Etymology
The English word
embarrassed is indirectly derived from the Spanish word. The first written 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".
6 whose 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.
7 The Spanish word likely comes from the
Portuguese embaraçar, which probably is a combination of the
prefix em- (from Latin
in- for "in-") with
baraça "a noose", or "rope".
8 Baraça originated before the Romans began their conquest of the
Iberian Peninsula in 218 BCE.
9 Thus,
baraça could be related to the
Celtic word
barr, "tuft". (Celtic people actually settled much of Spain and Portugal beginning in the 700s BCE, the second group of people to do so.)
10 However, it certainly isn't directly derived from it, as the substitution of
r for
rr in
Iberian Romance languages wasn't 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).
11 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.
12 Thus, modern scholars believe that the Italian word actually came from the Spanish one.
13
Further Information
Get more info on 'Embarazada'.
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