shame: [OE] Shame is a general Germanic term, with relatives in German scham, Dutch schaam, and Swedish and Danish skam. Their common ancestor is a prehistoric *skamō, a word of unknown origin. Sham [17] probably originated in a northern English pronunciation of shame. The compound shamefaced [16] has no etymological connection with face. It is an alteration of an earlier shamefast, whose second element is the same word as fast ‘firm’, and its underlying meaning is ‘held firm by shame’. => sham
