Jul 112011
Myötähäpeä, the feeling of mutually induced embarrassment on behalf of someone else, does not have a proper translation in english (or in most other languages).
I’ve been using “vicarious embarrassment” for years.
It’s not a perfect translation, but hits close enough.
Last Friday, while reading the Nyt-magazine, I stumbled upon a beauty of a new portmanteau: embarrathy.
It sounds pleasantly like the product of an illegitimate union of concepts, and boasts a nice Igor-like sound to it as a hefty bonus.