The day "cringe" got swapped out for "secondhand embarrassment" at the dog park

It went from everyone saying a puppy's awkward zoomies was cringe to calling it secondhand embarrassment for the owner, and the shift happened like two years ago when some influencer used it. Has anyone else noticed their friend group silently retire a word overnight?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakel361mo ago

Actually I think "cringe" overstayed its welcome by like five years, and secondhand embarrassment is way more precise when you're watching a grown adult act a fool not a puppy. Is it really that bad to update our language when something better comes along?

the_joel1mo ago

Nah, "cringe" works fine for both puppies and people.

felix_lane9917d ago

Forty year old me sees this same pattern everywhere now. People used to just say something was awkward or painful to watch and that was enough. Then "cringe" took over for like a solid decade and now we're arguing about "secondhand embarrassment." It's the same cycle that happened with "epic" and "literally" and about a dozen other words. We just keep adding layers onto the same basic feeling instead of letting old words retire peacefully.