Extremely embarrassing or humiliating, or causing someone to feel deeply ashamed.
From Latin mortificare (mortis meaning death, facere meaning to make), originally a religious term meaning to suppress sinful desires through self-denial, gradually shifted to describe the emotional 'death' from extreme embarrassment.
The word retains a hint of its religious origins—feeling mortified is like experiencing a small psychological death, which is why intensely embarrassing moments can feel so physically and emotionally overwhelming, almost like your social identity is dying temporarily.
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