[ SECRET POST #7102 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #7102 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 15 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1014.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Cringe as a noun ala "this fic is cringe" means to be servile. The verb is to shrink back in disgust or fear. What people mean when they say that, though, is that it makes them embarrassed and they then displace that embarrassment on the creator of the "cringy" thing to try and make the creator embarrassed. These days they'll say that about anything genuine or not jaded because god forbid we have any kind of real human connection.

[iff_and_xor]

Cringe as a noun ala "this fic is cringe" means to be servile.

Can I ask where this definition comes from?

My understanding was that “this is cringe” comes pretty directly from “this makes me cringe in embarrassment”. But I can’t remember if that’s something that’s been clearly documented by linguists or not.

[Edit: I do still have a problem with the term, I don’t like that as an adjective/noun it implies “cringe” to be an inherent quality of the thing rather than a highly subjective emotional reaction by a viewer.]

[iff_and_xor]

Sorry, another addition…

Everyone uses it to mean genuine or heartfelt these days.

That seems incomplete at best. There’s a clear negative connotation and I don’t think “genuine or heartfelt” is even a necessary component. I see people commonly call things “cringe” for being overly ironic too.

[(Anonymous)]

I've never seen anyone say that for something being overly ironic. Only things that aren't sarcastic or aren't polished.

[iff_and_xor]

Cool. But you see at least a few data points in the comments saying that they’ve seen “cringe” used for other things like people putting on pretensions, right?

[(Anonymous)]

I see them saying that in this comment thread. I have not run into this myself. My experiences are all I have to go off. I'm sorry my two sentence comment did not account for all of humanity.

[iff_and_xor]

Well, at the very least, you are now a second-hand anecdote in my personal dataset and they’re second-hand anecdotes in yours.

[(Anonymous)]

NTA
Cringe meaning "genuine or heartfelt" heavily depends on context and is mostly a contemporary/subcultural use. The only times I've seen it used for that is in a tongue-in-cheek way. Like, "this is cringe and I love it" or "I am cringe and free", etc.

[(Anonymous)]

Can I ask where this definition comes from?

From the dictionary. It's also how the noun was used in most novels pre the-last-twenty-years.

I can understand taking the verb, to cringe, and making it a new noun. But the verb is about the person talking, not the object. Let's take the close verb "flinch" as an example. I could say "That book was so flinch" and you could probably understand that I, personally, flinched when reading it. It doesn't say anything about the actual work. But people are trying to make cringe be something inherent to a work, and not to their reaction to it. "That work is so cringe" doesn't just mean that the person feels embarrassed for the creator but that the work itself is an embarrassment and the creator should feel embarrassed for doing it.

[iff_and_xor]

But if people currently saying “this fic is cringe” don’t actually mean “this fic is servile” in what way is that what the word means?

[(Anonymous)]

.... I started this whole thing by saying they were using it wrong. People can use "cromulent" to now mean blue, and I will still never use it that way because that's not what that means. I know languages change etc etc but I don't fucking care when it comes to cringe. I hate that people are so afraid of "being cringe" these days because by bowing and complying to the idea of "cringe" on the internet, they're actually being cringe, as in servile.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you ever refer to anything as "cool" without it being low temperature?

[(Anonymous)]

Does saying something is cool lead to people being so afraid of being perceived that they have to make secrets about it?

[(Anonymous)]

Moving goalposts.

Are they or are they and you not using the word cool "wrong" or differently from the original meaning?

[iff_and_xor]

Look, in my very first comment, I mentioned that I don’t like this usage. I don’t like that shift to “cringe” being a quality of the thing rather than a subjective reaction of the viewer.

I think that subtle shift from verb to noun/adjective does actually matter in people’s general perception.

I just also think that dragging in the sense of “servile” is irrelevant and confusing.

[(Anonymous)]

They asked. What was I gonna do? Lie?

[iff_and_xor]

No, but I think it’s simply honest and helpful to be clear that this is an idiosyncratic personal definition and not the most widely understood one.

[(Anonymous)]

........

So what's your definition

Literally what they asked. And then you asked where my definition comes from, which was the dictionary.

*looks into the camera*

[(Anonymous)]

You were asked your definition because you claim literally everyone else doesn’t know the definition and uses it wrong. You also claim people use it to mean heartfelt or sincere which is honestly one of the strangest claims I’ve seen. No one uses it that way. Literally no one has ever used it that way because people know what the verb means. Nor does anyone use cringe or cringey the way you think they should since they don’t mean what you think they do. I don’t know if this is the result of something getting garbled in translation or if you’re delusional but this whole thread is a train wreck.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

You could say this thread is... cringe... lol

[(Anonymous)]

Your experience is definitely not universal.