To cringe is to shrink back or feel embarrassed, uncomfortable, or disgusted, often because of something awkward. As a noun, a cringe is that strong feeling of secondhand embarrassment.
From Old English *cringan* meaning “to bend, to yield, to fall in battle.” Over time it shifted from physical bending or cowering to an inner emotional ‘shrinking’ from embarrassment.
When you cringe at someone else’s mistake, your brain reacts as if you made the mistake yourself. That’s your empathy system misfiring a bit—social pain is contagious.
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