What does ashame mean?
'Ashame' is an archaic English verb meaning to cause someone to feel shame, disgrace, or humiliation. Formed from the familiar root 'shame' with an intensive prefix, it once functioned alongside its still-common relative but gradually fell out of use, so that today readers encounter it mainly in older literature rather than everyday speech or writing. Where a historical text might say that someone 'was ashamed' by another's words, a modern writer would more naturally say that the person was shamed or embarrassed. The word's legacy persists robustly through its derivative adjective 'ashamed,' which remains one of the most frequent ways to describe the feeling of disgrace or self-conscious regret over one's own actions. For learners of English, 'ashame' itself is chiefly of historical and etymological interest: recognizing it clarifies older passages and illuminates how the adjective 'ashamed' took shape, though using the verb in current writing would strike most readers as antiquated or mistaken.
verbTo cause someone to feel shame or embarrassment. This verb is archaic and rarely used today, having been almost entirely replaced by the expression 'to shame' or the adjective 'ashamed.'
- To make someone feel shame or disgrace (archaic).
"He did not mean to ashame his sister before the whole village."
"The harsh rebuke was enough to ashame even the proudest of the pupils."
"In older writings one may find phrases such as 'to ashame a man openly' where modern English would simply say 'to shame him.'"
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of ashame
'Ashame' derives from Middle English, formed from the noun and verb 'shame' (from Old English 'sceamu'/'scamian') with a prefix akin to that seen in 'amaze.' It developed alongside 'ashamed' as the participial adjective that ultimately outlived the verb itself. Cognates of the core root include Old Norse 'skamm,' Dutch and German forms related to shame, all tracing back to a Germanic root concerned with covering or concealing oneself in disgrace.
Related word forms
How ashame is actually used
'Ashame' is archaic and essentially obsolete in contemporary English; it survives mainly in older texts and dialectal remnants. Modern writers should use 'shame' as a verb or 'ashamed' as an adjective instead.
Easily confused with ashame
'Ashamed' is the standard modern adjective describing someone who feels shame, while 'ashame' is a now-archaic verb meaning to inflict that feeling on someone.