compunction
noun
Havelock EllisRobert Penn Warren
Did you know?
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.
Examples of compunction in a Sentence
Gautam Mukunda, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
And if the writers are true to Tolkien, our heroes will have no compunctions about killing many, many, many orcs.
—Caitlin Penzeymoog, Vox, 7 Oct. 2024
Calhoun belonged to a generation of scientists who had no compunctions about straying from their disciplinary lane.
—Ben Goldfarb, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2024
But what survives most of all is the film’s utter ruthlessness—its lack of compunction about immolating an elevator full of partygoers or bumping off its most sympathetic character in a fiery final stretch.
—The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near compunction
Cite this Entry
“Compunction.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compunction. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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compunction
noun
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