The latest choice of the Accademia della Crusca may not please language purists, but will for sure be welcomed by social network fanatics. The word \u201ccringe\u201d has officially been added to new Italian words, according to the Institution\u2019s Linguistics and Philology scholars. It literally means \u201cembarrassing\u201d and generally refers to \u201cscenes and behavior of others that arouse embarrassment and discomfort in onlookers\u201d. But it can also be used as a noun meaning \u201cthe very feeling of embarrassment\u201d or \u201cthe phenomenon of arousing embarrassment and, in particular, scenes, images and behaviors that engender this feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n
On its dedicated page, the Accademica della Crusca points out that the word \u201ccringe\u201d is mainly used by young people in social network communications, and more broadly, online. For sure, \u201ccringe\u201d has many meanings: \u201cto draw in or contract one\u2019s muscles involuntarily (as from cold or pain)\u201d; \u201cto recoil in distaste\u201d; \u201cto shrink in fear or servility\u201d, and, finally, \u201cto feel embarrassed and ashamed about something\u201d. The word\u2019s common use we find on the web is above all the one recorded in the Urban Dictionary, the online jargon dictionary assembled by English-speaking users, which states that \u201ccringe\u201d is the feeling felt when \u201csomeone behaves in such a way, or so embarrassingly that makes you feel full of shame and\/or embarrassed\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to scholars, the first use of the word \u201ccringe\u201d in Italy first appeared on Twitter in 2012. However, the word \u201ccringe\u201d was already being used in 2011 to refer to the American cringe comedy film genre, namely an \u201cembarrassing\u201d comedy centered \u201con repetitive visual gags moving the story forward\u201d. But, it is above all in the last year (perhaps due to the excessive use of social media during the pandemic?) that the use of \u201ccringe\u201d has grown exponentially (so much so that it deserves a place in the prestigious Accademia della Crusca portal). According to the Accademia, as of December 1, 2020 there were over 400,000 citations on Google and 2070 in books. These are impressive numbers, if you think that \u201ccringe\u201d, at least for now, is not even included in Italian language dictionaries.<\/p>\n
It is well known, however, that social networks evolve at a much faster pace. Be that as it may, \u201ccringe\u201d can already boast of its offshoots, such as the Italian superlative \u201ccringissimo\u201d, the present participle \u201ccringiante\u201d, the infinitive \u201ccringiare\u201d and the feminine noun \u201ccringiata\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The latest choice of the Accademia della Crusca may not please language purists, but will for sure be welcomed by social network fanatics. The word \u201ccringe\u201d has officially been added to new Italian words, according to the Institution\u2019s Linguistics and Philology scholars. It literally means \u201cembarrassing\u201d and generally refers to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traduzione-en"],"yoast_head":"\n