Table of Contents
The word for today is…
compunction (noun) -
1a: anxiety arising from awareness of guilt
b: distress of mind over an anticipated action or result
2: a twinge of misgiving : scruple
Source : Merriam-Webster
Etymology : An old proverb says "a guilty conscience needs no accuser," and it's true that the sting of a guilty conscience—or a conscience that is provoked by the contemplation of doing something wrong—can prick very hard indeed. The sudden guilty "prickings" of compunction are reflected in the word's etymological history. Compunction comes (via Anglo-French compunction and Middle English compunccioun) from Latin compungere, which means "to prick hard" or "to sting." Compungere, in turn, derives from pungere, meaning "to prick," which is the ancestor of some other prickly words in English, such as puncture and even point.
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