Etymology

shameful

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Today it means: Causing or meriting shame or disgrace; disgraceful Full definition →

Middle English schameful ← Old English sċeomfull ← Proto-Germanic *fullaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*skamō
  2. Proto-West Germanic*skamu
  3. Old Englishsċamu
  4. Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*pl̥h₁nós
  6. Proto-Germanic*fullaz
  7. Old Englishsċeomfull
  8. Middle Englishschameful
  9. English todayshameful

From Middle English schameful, schamfull, from Old English *sċeamfull, sċeomfull, equivalent to shame + -ful. Cognate with Danish skamfuld (“shameful, shamefast, ashamed”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.