Compunctious

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Feeling or showing deep regret and guilt over wrongdoing, marked by an uneasy conscience
2. Experiencing a strong sense of remorse or guilt in response to one's actions, often accompanied by discomfort or a conflicted state of mind
3. Characterized by an emotional awareness of moral transgressions, leading to feelings of regret and unease about past behaviors

Etymology: Shakespeare may have been the first to use this word, in "Macbeth," where Lady Macbeth says she would have dashed her infant's brains out rather than break a vow, and the play then has her husband fear the "compunctious visitings of nature." The adjective appears to have been taken up from that line in later modern English, though it is an unusual survivor from his vocabulary rather than a word that spread widely. The word is built from "compunction," which entered English from Latin "compunctio," a noun meaning a pricking or stinging, from "compungere," to prick sharply, with "com-" meaning "thoroughly" and "pungere," to prick. The stinging image is the heart of the sense: a pang of conscience was imagined as a physical jab. The suffix "-ous," from Latin "-osus," turns a noun into an adjective meaning "full of" or "characterised by," so the word describes someone full of that sting of guilt.

Synonyms: remorseful, guilty

Antonyms: unrepentant