These words refer to a disconcerted state of mind brought on by the broaching or exposing of an impropriety or by some blow to the ego. At its mildest, embarrassment may refer merely to social uneasiness: her embarrassment at having to introduce her fiancé. Or it may refer to a cringing from indelicacy: her embarrassment at overhearing the coarse talk of some soldiers. More to the point, however, it refers strongly to alarm at any public exposure of one’s own ineptness or impropriety: his embarrassment at not remembering the name of his distinguished guest; the embarrassment of being discovered by her parents in the arms of the strange man. Discomposure is more formal and is restricted to the milder sense of embarrassment , usually suggesting a social uneasiness for any reason whatever: greeting his unexpected guests without being able to conceal his discomposure . Chagrin concentrates specifically on embarrassment because of a blow to the ego: She looked down with chagrin at her own unstylish dress.

The remaining words all point to more severe states of embarrassment than the foregoing words. Shame suggests a guilty disgust for one’s own actions: looking back with shame on his night’s escapades; boiling with shame at having failed in the examination. Humiliation suggests a public loss of self-respect or the respect of others; this can result through a person’s own failure or through someone else’s malicious attempt to discredit him; the humiliation of having to appear in court on a drunken-driving charge; those who regard receiving relief cheques as a humiliation ; false accusations that resulted in his public humiliation . Mortification derives from a word meaning to kill and reflects this root in referring hyperbolically to someone almost destroyed by shame or embarrassment : her mortification at learning she had given all her money to confidence men. It is the most intense of all these words, except that frequent hyperbolical use has weakened its force considerably.