Page "False friend" Paragraph 42

Another Spanish / English false friend is " embarrassed / embarazado ".

Where " embarrassed " in English means approximately " ashamed ", a similar-sounding Spanish word, " embarazada ", means " pregnant ".

Both derive from old Castillan-Portuguese " embarazar ", meaning impede, hinder, obstruct.

In Spanish it was then used as euphemism for " pregnant " ( she was " embarrassed "-- hindered — by her pregnancy ) and that became the primary meaning.

In English, the meaning was taken from being " embarrassed ", ill at ease, hindered, by shame.

In Portuguese, " embaraçar " has a meaning similar to the English.

( In medical English, however, " embarrass " retains a meaning much more general than in the language as a whole: essentially, to diminish.