Q:

Does the expression "to be taken abashed" exist?

I think I'm mixing up "aghast" with "abash" in "to be taken abashed". But I think I've heard this construction once. For example, is the following sentence correct? "The government was taken abashed by the usurpers". Even if it is somewhat unusual, is it correct nevertheless?
Thanks for clearing up any confusions of mine!

A:

"Taken abashed" definitely sounds wrong to me. If I heard that I'd assume the speaker meant "Taken aback." 
See this explanation of "aback" 

'Aback' means in a backward direction - toward the rear. It is a word
  that has fallen almost into disuse, apart from in the phrase 'taken
  aback'. Originally 'aback' was two words: 'a' and 'back', but these
  became merged into a single word in the 15th century. The word
  'around' and the now archaic 'adown' were formed in the same way.
'Taken aback' is an allusion to something that is startling enough to
  make us jump back in surprise. The first to be 'taken aback' were not
  people though but ships. The sails of a ship are said to be 'aback'
  when the wind blows them flat against the masts and spars that support
  them. A use of this was recorded in the London Gazette in 1697:
"I braced my main topsails aback."
taken abackIf the wind were to turn suddenly so that a sailing ship
  was facing unexpectedly into the wind, the ship was said to be 'taken
  aback'. An early example of that in print comes from an author called
  Eeles in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1754:
"If they luff up, they will be taken aback, and run the hazard of
  being dismasted."
Note: 'to luff' is to bring the head of a ship nearer to the wind.
The figurative use of the phrase, meaning surprised rather than
  physically pushed back, came in the 19th century. It appeared in The
  Times in March 1831:
"Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, were all taken aback with astonishment,
  that the Ministers had not come forward with some moderate plan of
  reform."
Charles Dickens also used it in his American Notes in 1842:
"I don't think I was ever so taken aback in all my life."

