(shə-grĭnˈ)
noun A keen feeling of mental unease, as of annoyance or embarrassment, caused by failure, disappointment, or a disconcerting event: To her chagrin, the party ended just as she arrived.
transitive verb cha·grined,
cha·grin·ing,
cha·grins To cause to feel chagrin; mortify or discomfit:
He was chagrined at the poor sales of his book. See Synonyms at
embarrass.
The ultimate etymology of the word
chagrin, which comes directly to us from French, is considered uncertain by many etymologists. At one time
chagrin was thought to be the same word as
shagreen, “a leather or skin with a rough surface,” derived from French
chagrin. The reasoning was that in French the word for this rough material, which was used to smooth and polish things, was extended to the notion of troubles that fret and annoy a person. It was later decided, however, that the sense “rough leather” and the sense “sorrow” each belonged to a different French word
chagrin. Other etymologists have offered an alternative explanation, suggesting that the French word
chagrin, “sorrow,” is a loan translation of the German word
Katzenjammer, “a hangover from drinking.” A loan translation is a type of borrowing from another language in which the elements of a foreign word, as in
Katzen, “cats,” and
Jammer, “distress, seediness,” are assumed to be translated literally by corresponding elements in another language, in this case,
chat, “cat,” and
grigner, “to grimace.” The actual etymology is less colorful, with the word probably going back to a Germanic word,
*gramī, meaning “sorrow, trouble.”
Chagrin is first recorded in English in 1656 in the now obsolete sense “anxiety, melancholy.”
