the.com/mortification
that full-body cringe where your soul tries to escape through your face
means A feeling of deep shame, embarrassment, or humiliation — the sting of wounded pride; (in older religious use) the deliberate subduing of bodily desires through self-discipline or pain.
from From Latin mortificare, "to put to death," stitched together from mors, mortis ("death") and facere ("to make") — the same mors that gives us mortal and mortuary. It entered English through religion, where to mortify the flesh meant to kill off your sinful appetites by fasting or penance. From that literal deadening, the word drifted into a smaller, sharper death — the way a humiliating moment makes a little part of you wish to perish on the spot.
- root meaning
- from Latin for making something dead
- medieval flavor
- once meant deliberately starving the flesh for holiness
- medical term
- mortification described actual rotting tissue, aka gangrene
- blush reflex
- embarrassment triggers visible flushing nothing else does
- the gut punch
- shame activates pain centers like physical injury
cilice wearing — hair shirt worn by saints like thomas becket and modern practitioners for penance and self-denial
flagellant movement — medieval european sect that whipped themselves publicly during the black death (1347-1351) for spiritual purification
saint simeon stylites — 5th century christian ascetic who lived atop a pillar for 37 years refusing comfort as mortification