English
abash
Abash comes from Middle English abaisen ‘lose one's composure, be upset’, and goes back to Medieval Latin *exbadō.
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500*exbadōreconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400esbaïr
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600abair
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400abaïss
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500abaisen‘lose one's composure, be upset’
- Englishearliest quotation 1485abash
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500*exbadōreconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400esbaïr
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600abair
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400abaïss
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500abaisen‘lose one's composure, be upset’
- Englishearliest quotation 1485abash
Earliest quotation: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur: “[...] as King Uther lay by his queen, he…”
The story
Attested from 1303, as Middle English abaisen, abaishen, abashen (‘lose one's composure, be upset’), from the later 14th-century also transitive "to make ashamed, to perplex or embarrass"; from Anglo-Norman abaïss, from Middle French abair, abaisser (‘lose one's composure, be startled, be stunned’), from Old French esbaïr, (French ébahir), from es- (‘utterly’) + baïr (‘to astonish’), from Medieval Latin *exbadō, from ex- (‘out of’) + bado (‘to gape, yawn’), an onomatopoeic word imitating a yawn, see also French badaud (‘rubbernecker’).
Every English word from Medieval Latin *exbadō
Today it means
verb To make ashamed; to embarrass; to destroy the self-possession of, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to disconcert; to discomfit.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Medieval Latin *exbadō / abash