Aussie actor Hugh Jackman feels pretty crappy today. He's just attended the 61st San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain, where he picked up a Donostia award for lifetime achievement. I know he feels lousy, because he said the award made him feel "humbled".
The Oxford Dictionary (www.oxforddictionariesonline.com) says that the verb to humble means "to cause someone to feel less important or proud". Macquarie Dictionary defines it as follows: "to lower in condition, importance or dignity; abase".
This unusual use of the word humble is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. Wherever someone gets an award or otherwise has praise and adoration lavished upon them – whether they're actors, sports stars or triumphant politicians – they can often be heard telling us that they feel humbled by the honour.
Why are they seemingly telling us that all this positive attention makes them feel so bad? In the recent past it was only genuinely devastating blows to one's ego that would prompt people to say that they felt humbled, such as undergoing a relationship breakup, losing one's job, getting thrashed in a debate with a friend or colleague – or undergoing any number of the countless other humiliations that life can throw at us.
What's happening to the meaning of this word? I suspect it's in the process of becoming a contronym, which is a word that means both one thing and also its exact opposite. Probably the most well-known example of a contronym is the word sanction, which means "a penalty for disobeying a law or regulation" (e.g. "The sanctions against Iraq imposed by the US were having a drastic effect on the Iraqi population") and which also means "official permission or approval for an action" (e.g. She sanctioned his use of the company credit card"). So sanction can mean to permit or to punish.
But on second thoughts, I'm not sure that when the word humbled is used at these moments of triumph that the person wants to say that they feel either elated and proud or abjectly low and unworthy. The sense I get is that they want to say that they are deeply touched by getting the award and the lavish praise and attention, that they feel genuinely appreciative and grateful. But there's still a hint of the original meaning of the word in there. They don't really feel humiliated, but they want to get across the idea that all this attention hasn't given them a swollen head, that they've still got their feet on their ground.
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