shameless

From Middle English shameles, shamelees, schameles, schomeles, schomeleas, from Old English sċamlēas, sċeamlēas (“without shame; shameless”), from Proto-Germanic *skamalausaz (“shameless”), equivalent to shame +‎ -less. Cognate with West Frisian skamteleas (“shameless”), Dutch schaamteloos (“shameless”), German schamlos (“shameless”), Danish skamløs (“shameless”), Swedish skamlös (“shameless”), Icelandic skammlaus (“shameless; unashamed”).

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shameless (comparative more shameless, superlative most shameless)

2. Having no shame, no guilt nor remorse over something considered wrong; immodest, brazen; unable to feel disgrace.

   Synonym: unshameable

4. (obsolete) Not subject to other people’s shaming or reproach.

   Near-synonyms: blameless, unblameable

   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 38–41:

     He shall be as now nameles,
     But he shall not be blameles,
     Nor he shall not be shameles;
     For sure he wrought amys, […]

Despite being formed as antonyms (with the suffixes -ful and -less), the words shameful and shameless are, while not synonymous, close in meaning and sometimes applicable to the same referent: the same conduct could be criticized as both shameful and shameless. The distinction is that a shameful act is one that should inspire shame, while a shameless act is one that demonstrates that its author has no appropriate sense of shame, i.e. is brazen.

• shamelessly
• shamelessness