The Cringiest Cringe of the Week (December 27, 2023)

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Dec 27, 2023 2:00 PM EST

Did you know that "cringe" didn't always mean what it means today? There are many definitions of cringe, most of them boiling down to experiencing "an inward feeling of acute embarrassment or awkwardness." Thanks, Google! However, there are more specific definitions of this pervasive word. According to Miriam Webster, the top definition of cringe is "to recoil in distaste," which I find pretty intriguing. We often neglect that cringe manifests in all of us physically. It's a sensation beyond feeling embarrassed on somebody else's or our own behalf. Cringe is a physical sensation as much or even more than it is an emotional one. Speaking of the physical, cringe used to mean to "bend one's head and body in fear or in a servile manner." That definition is a bit archaic at this point, but it's interesting that words like meme and cringe had different meanings before the internet got ahold of them. If you want to look at some contemporary cringe, I won't make you bow your head like a servant to scroll down.