A German term which describes the process of being vicariously embarrassed by someone else. For example when somebody's concept for a great party gag goes terrible wrong and you watch him fail in the middle of all of his friends.
Tom was completely wasted while he held the speech on Mike's wedding party. Fremdschämen in perfection.
That feeling you get when your Federal Government colleague says something so dumb in a meeting that you feel embarrassed for them.
Derived from Femdschämen (German); the feeling of secondhand embarrassment.
Origin: The Federal Emergency Management Agency, but broadly applicable throughout Federal, State, and Local government as well as the government contracting community.
"Jesus. I experienced intense FEMAschämen when S*** asked what the difference between a gigabyte and a megabyte was. I didn't know what to say. It was almost as bad as when G****** emailed us some data, but asked if we could send the spreadsheet back when we were finished because it was their only copy, or when A**** told us that "I have an idea...in my mind'", etc.