congratulations

Early American speaking man was a very selfish being – when a person accomplished something great or interesting, they were generally conned into believing that others were happy for them. This basic con was given free of charge and not really thought about, because being well-mannered came along with selfishness back then.
Especially within the educated classes.

Newspaper writers of the day saw the need for one word in these situations instead of many.
“Tom Amderson deserves compliments for having sold a rocking chair to the President.” and sentences like it, were tiresome. Wouldn’t it be easier to just say “_________ Tom?”

So a summit was held by a small group of journalists to figure out an appropriate word for pretending to be happy for someone… the following is a summation of the transcript from the event.
“A person wins something.”
“What do you do with a winner?”
“What do the bitches do with a winner?”
“They adore a winner. Losers are despised.”
“Okay….let’s work with that.”
“Love”
“Adore”
“Said that already.”
“Flatter”
“Anybody have a synonym dictionary?”
“Here we go, here we go – adulation.”
“Okay cool, we’ve got a definition for what we want: to freely con somebody into believing you’re an adulator.”
“Got it, got it”
“Alright?”
“Congratulations”
“Holy shit, that sounds great.”
“Yeah, I know. con + gratis + adulation”
“People will eat this word up.”
“We’re going to be famous.”

embarrassed

Back in the day if you did something to be ashamed of you were “showing your ass.”
This evolved in the 19th century to being “bare assed.”
“Old man Smith is out again, being bare assed over at the saloon.”

As American society became increasingly sophisticated, authors searching for a way to express “being bare assed” decided to throw the “em” at the beginning. As in: put into, make, provide with, surround with.

Coincidentally at the same time, Mexican influence was spreading at an amazing rate. The word “embarazada,” which means “pregnant,” made it’s way into the Southwestern lexicon and quickly became known throughout the United States. Women at this point in American history were seriously discomfited by the fact of everyone and their mother knowing that they had had a penis in them, so there was definitely a negative connotation there.

So, you have being pregnant and bare assed all in one convenient word.
This little three-syllable ditty made it’s way into every day use because people are constantly doing things that make them look ridiculous…and creating babies.