A feeling of guilt or regret that makes you hesitant to do something, or a slight pang of conscience.
From Old French 'compunction' derived from Late Latin 'compunctio', from 'compungere' (to prick together). The literal sense of stabbing evolved into the figurative meaning of a guilty conscience causing emotional distress.
Medieval theologians actually classified compunction as a virtue—feeling remorse for wrongdoing was seen as spiritually healthy, which is why the word carried such weight in religious contexts for centuries before becoming more general.
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