The painful sense of being degraded or lowered by others.
The painful sense of being degraded or lowered by others — a loss of dignity and standing, often unjust.
Distinguished by an external agent and an element of injustice: unlike embarrassment, which we bring on ourselves, humiliation is brought upon us by others, involving abasement of honor and loss of status and standing — and the standing is not easily recovered. Like embarrassment it rests on others' appraisal (external), unlike the self-appraising shame and guilt; more violating and lasting than embarrassment. Mortification is humiliation or shame at extreme pitch.
From Latin humiliare “to humble,” from humilis “lowly,” literally “on the ground,” from humus “earth.” The literal image is being brought down to the ground.
Developed from the neutral/religious “to humble, abase” toward the modern negative “to degrade, mortify, shame.” The noun (late 14c.) is older than the verb humiliate (1530s). No reliable recent-generation shift.