mortification

American  

[mawr-tuh-fi-key-shuhn] / ˌmɔr tə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. a feeling of humiliation or shame, as through some injury to one's pride or self-respect.

2. a cause or source of such humiliation or shame.

3. the practice of asceticism by penitential discipline to overcome desire for sin and to strengthen the will.

4. Pathology. the death of one part of the body while the rest is alive; gangrene; necrosis.

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mortification British  

/ ˌmɔːtɪfɪˈkeɪʃən /

noun

1. a feeling of loss of prestige or self-respect; humiliation

2. something causing this

3. Christianity the practice of mortifying the senses

4. another word for gangrene

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Usage

What does mortification mean? Mortification is a feeling of humiliation or extreme embarrassment. You know when you do something so unbearably embarrassing that you just want to shrivel up and die? That’s the feeling of mortification. Which is fitting because the word comes from a root meaning “death.”In other words, mortification is the state of being mortified—humiliated or extremely embarrassed. Things that are humiliating or extremely embarrassing can be described as mortifying. Both mortify and mortification also have meanings that relate to literal death. In medical terms, mortification refers to the death of one part of the body while the rest of the body is alive. This is more technically called gangrene or necrosis. Mortification is also used (less commonly) in a religious context, in which it refers to the ascetic practice of self-discipline with the goal of strengthening one’s will and overcoming the desire to sin. In Christianity, forms of mortification include things like fasting. In some extreme cases, especially in older times, it has included things like self-flagellation—whipping oneself. Example: I can’t even express the sense of mortification I felt when I forgot every single word of my speech and then tripped while trying to run away.

Synonym Usage

See shame.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• premortification
  noun

Etymology

Origin of mortification

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mortificacion, from Late Latin mortificātiōn- (stem of mortificātiō ), equivalent to morti- ( see mortify) + -ficatiōn- -fication

Explanation

If you've ever gone an entire day with your fly unzipped, not realizing until after you've given a speech in front of a huge audience, you know what mortification feels like. Mortification is the feeling of being completely humiliated. The word mortification has its roots in the Latin word for "death," mors. The original meaning of mortification was religious; in Christianity the meaning is "putting your sin to death". In Christian practice, this has varied from denying oneself pleasurable things, like certain foods, to inflicting physical pain on oneself. The religious reason for this kind of mortification is to cause the "death" of sins — or desires — of the body.

Example Sentences

“The Mortification of Fovea Munson” at The Kennedy Center, we were in the pandemic line waiting for our moment, and then we finally got it.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 25, 2023

And for the Kennedy Center in Washington, she is turning her first middle-grade novel, “The Mortification of Fovea Munson,” into a musical.

From Washington Post • May 10, 2021

About 30,000 people now subscribe to The Mortification of Spin on iTunes.

From Slate • Dec. 14, 2014

In 1866 she fell ill, and as "Mortification" set in, Lee "watched with her all Night, lifting & turning her in Bed about every 5 minits."

From Time Magazine Archive

Mortification was upon the eve of setting in.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. by Various