"What a Shame" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 2020-09-19

0:00 - How to Say, “What a shame!”
0:19 - Examples of “What a shame!”
1:07 - Meaning of “What a shame!”
3:00 - Further Explanation of “What a shame!”
4:43 - More Examples of “What a shame!”
5:26 - Conclusion

“What a shame!”

You may hear someone say, “What a shame!” when they wish something was different or they feel sad, upset or disappointed about it.

“The supermarket is throwing away all that perfectly good food? What a shame…” you might say after seeing the dumpster behind a supermarket.

Maybe you permanently injured your knee, “What a shame you won’t be able to pursue ballet professionally anymore,” your sister might say.

“It’s raining! What a shame, we had our picnic lunch all ready to go,” you might say one morning to your family.

As you can tell, the idiom, “what a shame,” means that you are sorrowful, unhappy, regretful, glum or dejected that something is not or will not turn out the way you expected.

“What a shame,” is also often used in a sarcastic manner; you can use it when what you really mean is that you are happy something happened.

“He was fired for being late to work too many times... what a shame!” you might sarcastically say about a very lazy coworker.

“Shame” sounds a lot like “ashamed,” and so one might assume that “what a shame,” means that something is embarrassing, disgraceful, dishonourable - but the truth is that none of these apply.

“Shame on you,” or, “shamed and disgraced,” are idioms which are equivalent to “ashamed”, humiliated, mortified or loss of face. “Shame” used alone in a sentence also often has this same meaning…

… “He is a shame to our family. I feel ashamed that someone related to us is a notorious criminal!” someone might say at a family reunion.

“What a shame,” however, does not mean disgrace, humiliation or loss of face - it means that a situation is regrettable, unfortunate, displeasing and you feel sorry that it didn’t turn out differently.

“What a shame” and “shame” in many usages, came to have the modern meaning of disappointment, dismay, upset and regret at least as early as the start of the 20th century, according to Sven Yargs on StackExchange.

It is always a shame when things don’t go as we planned, but the bigger shame would be to let setbacks or misfortunes discourage us from trying again.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” goes the familiar proverb. Indeed, if you are able to “give it another go,” then you should!

Of course, the idiom, “what a shame,” is not only used for situations in which difficulties or setbacks are enormous, but can also be used for trivial or trifling matters, as well.

“You dropped the last cookie on the floor? What a shame, you can’t eat it now,” you might say to your toddler.

Perhaps you break up with your girlfriend because a long-distance relationship was too stressful and your friend says, “What a shame! She was such a great person.”

“What a shame that these forest fires have destroyed our favourite provincial park,” you might lament to your hiking buddy.

So, the next time you encounter an unfortunate, unhappy, unwelcome, unfavourable or undesirable circumstance, don’t forget to exclaim, “What a shame!”

References: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/423175/at-what-point-did-what-a-shame-come-to-mean-what-a-disappointment-or-what-a#:~:text=Old%20English%20scamu%2C%20sceomu%20%22feeling,Swedish%20skam%2C%20Old%20Frisian%20scome

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