Make Your Point > Archived Issues > MORTIFY
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pronounce
MORTIFY:
Say it "MORE dih fie."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
A high five to John for suggesting this word, mortify, which traces back to the Latin word for "death," mors.
So do words like mortal, mortuary, mortician, post-mortem, and mortgage, which, as I've shared before, is literally a "dead pledge," not because you'll be paying off your mortgage until you die, but because the deal is "dead" when you either pay it all off or fail to pay.
Ooh, so does one more term that we've checked out before: m____to_mori, literally "remember to die," and figuratively, "something you see that reminds you of your mortality." Fun fact: this term is also the name of the gift shop outside Disney's Haunted Mansion.
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definition:
The word "mortify" comes from two Latin ones: mors, "death," and facere, "to make or do." So, its oldest and most literal meaning is "to make dead, to kill."
From there, it grew to mean "to destroy," "to ruin," and, by about 1639, it gained the meaning we use most often today: "to shame or embarrass terribly."
In other words, to mortify someone is to make them feel extremely embarrassed.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
It's a verb, the transitive kind: "the picture mortified him," "they were mortified by their mistake."
Other forms:
Mortified, mortifying, mortification.
And it's rare, but you can refer to the things or people who embarrass you to death as "mortifiers."
how to use it:
When you're talking about being embarrassed to death--that is, so red-faced that you nearly wish you could die--then pick the word "mortify" instead of tamer options like "shame," "disgrace," "embarrass," "humiliate," and "make a complete fool of."
We most often use this verb in the passive: "he was mortified by it," "they were mortified when that happened," "I'd be mortified if that happened to me."
examples:
"As a male surgeon, I am mortified that the profession allows my female colleagues to be treated like second-class citizens."
— Chethan Sathya, Scientific American, 14 January 2020
"Johnson so fortified himself with whiskey on taking his oath of office for the vice presidency that his rambling, drunken speech mortified all who were present."
— Manisha Sinha, New York Times, 29 November 2019
has this page helped you understand "mortify"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "mortify" without saying "disgrace" or "discomfit."
try it out:
If you've ever flipped through a teen magazine, you're probably familiar with that regular column of "mortifying" stories from readers. In Seventeen Magazine, this column was called "Trauma-rama." In YM it was "Say Anything." In Teen People, "Why Me?" (Are these still a thing? I don't know. Are teen magazines even still a thing?)
Anyway, the stories in these columns often concluded with a comment like "I was totally mortified!" or "I was so mortified I hid in the bathroom for the rest of the class!" Here's an example:
"I was hanging out in the park with my best friend and these two hot guys from the grade above ours. It was going really well, but right in the middle of a funny story I was telling, something warm and wet hit my arm. A bird had pooped on me! The others couldn't stop laughing."
I'm laughing too, but I guess if you're the fourteen-year-old narrator, then the experience above is truly mortifying.
Think back to your preteen or teen years. Talk about something that happened to you that you found mortifying. Can you laugh about it now, or does it still give you shudders of mortification?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Lightning Rhyming Recall!
In each issue this month, see how fast you can recall three words. They’re unrelated in meaning--probably--but they rhyme. To check your answers, scroll to the bottom of the issue. We’ll start out easy and ramp up the difficulty as the month goes on. Enjoy!
Each word below rhymes with STORY:
A. (4 syllables, adjective) Something intimidating and threatening is...
B. (4 syllables, adjective) When something is trivial or totally unimportant, it's...
C. (5 syllables, adjective) Something based purely on chance is...
review this word:
A. DIGNIFICATION.
B. FREMDSCHAM (secondhand embarrassment).
C. DECEREBRATION (the inability to use your brain).
2. Rather than sitting there mortified, George Michael _____.
A. rushes to turn off the stove and oven before a fire can start
B. grabs a toy light saber and demonstrates how to properly battle a Sith lord
C. slips out from the driver's seat of the vehicle, now jammed in the entrance to the parking garage, to blend in with the bystanders, pointing and laughing
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
A high five to John for suggesting this word, mortify, which traces back to the Latin word for "death," mors. The word "mortify" comes from two Latin ones: mors, "death," and facere, "to make or do." So, its oldest and most literal meaning is "to make dead, to kill."
Part of speech:
When you're talking about being embarrassed to death--that is, so red-faced that you nearly wish you could die--then pick the word "mortify" instead of tamer options like "shame," "disgrace," "embarrass," "humiliate," and "make a complete fool of."
"As a male surgeon, I am mortified that the profession allows my female colleagues to be treated like second-class citizens."
Explain the meaning of "mortify" without saying "disgrace" or "discomfit."
If you've ever flipped through a teen magazine, you're probably familiar with that regular column of "mortifying" stories from readers. In Seventeen Magazine, this column was called "Trauma-rama." In YM it was "Say Anything." In Teen People, "Why Me?" (Are these still a thing? I don't know. Are teen magazines even still a thing?)
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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