Embarazada

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Embarazada (IPA [emβ̞aɾa'θað̞a] in Castilian Spanish, or [emβ̞aɾa'sað̞a] in dialects with seseo) is the Spanish word for pregnant. It is a notorious false friend for non-native students of Spanish. Attempting to say "I'm embarrassed" by saying "estoy embarazada" means "I'm pregnant" in Spanish. This may be confusing or baffling when said by a man, and potentially embarrassing. This is what happened to Parker Pen when it tried to enter the Mexican market. Its ads tried to say that Parker Pens "won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." But the ads were translated into Spanish as saying they "won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant".¹ Another error would be to say "Soy embarazada" which means something like "I am a pregnant kind of woman".² The use of ser / soy implies a permanent state, while estar / estoy indicates something is a change from before.

Confusion may also arise through the use of the phrase tengo vergüenza (meaning "I have shame") or the more correct phrases me da vergüenza or estoy avergonzado (idiomatically meaning "I am embarrassed", "I am ashamed", or "I am bashful").³ Yet, in Spanish, there also exists the adjective embarazoso, meaning exactly the same as "embarrassing" in its denotation of something that causes a sensation of unease, but not of shame.⁴ Complicating the issue further, embarazada can sometimes also mean "hampered", or "hindered".⁵ This more closely mirrors the original meaning of the English word embarrass.⁶

Contents 1 Grammar 1.1 Usage 1.2 Etymology 2 See also 3 Endnotes

[edit] Grammar

Embarazada is a past participle, meaning that it indicates a state resulting from a previous action. In English, past participles end in -ed (e.g., 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 is rarely encountered in Spanish. It is more common for the word embarazada to be used to describe pregnancy. However, embarazado may be used as a past participle in perfect tenses, as in: Javier ha embarazado a María. (Javier has impregnated María.)

[edit] Usage

As mentioned above, embarazada is a state. To say, "Javier impregnates María", one would say Javier embaraza a María. To say, "Javier impregnated María", one would say Javier embarazó a María. However, of the 50 possible forms embarazar can take, about 31--or 62% of the total--do not make any sense. For example, one can say, "Javier, impregnate María" (asking Javier to impregnate María) as Javier, embaraza a María. "We impregnate María", would be Embarazamos a María. "Javier, you're impregnating María" would be Javier, estás embarazando a María.

[edit] 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 "obstruct",⁷ 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.⁸ 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".⁹ Baraça originated before the Romans began their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC.¹⁰ 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 people to do so.)¹¹ However, it certainly is not directly derived from it, as the subsitution of r for rr in Ibero-Romantic 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 "bar", which is a combination of in-, "in" with barra, "bar" (from the Vulgar Latin barra, which is of unknown origin).¹² 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.¹³ Thus, modern scholars believe that the Italian word actually came from the Spanish one.¹⁴

[edit] See also

• Spanglish

[edit] Endnotes

1. Sandy Serva, iLanguage Translations for Global Research, Jan 2003, Vol. 26, Issue 1, p 51.
2. "embarazada," Collins Spanish Dictionary (2003) p. 380.
3. "embarrassed," op. cit., p. 1311.
4. "embarazoso," op. cit., p.380.
5. "embarazar," loc. cit.
6. "embarras," The Oxford English Dictionary, (1989) <http://dictionary.oed.com> [Accessed February 15, 2006].
7. Ibid.
8. Joan Corominas and José Pacual, "embarazar," Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, (Gredos, 1980) Vol. II, p. 555-556.
9. "embarrass," Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (2002) <http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com> [Accessed February 15, 2006].
10. Corominas, "embarazar".
11. "Iberian," Encyclopaedia Britannica, <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041884> [Accessed February 15, 2006].
12. Corominas, "embarazar".
13. "embarrass," The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, (2000) <http://www.bartleby.com/61/12/E0101200.html> [Accessed February 15, 2006].
14. "imbarazzare," Grande Dizionario Italiano, (2007) <http://www.garzantilinguistica.it/interna_ita.html> [Accessed October 29, 2006].