the.com/scruple
The tiny internal lawyer that shows up right before you do something you'll regret.
means A nagging twinge of conscience or hesitation that makes you pause before doing something you suspect is wrong.
from From Latin 'scrupulus,' a sharp little stone — literally the diminutive of 'scrupus,' a rough pebble. The leap to conscience is wonderfully literal: Romans used it for the small, nagging feeling of a pebble stuck in your sandal, the kind of tiny irritant you can't quite ignore. Over time that physical discomfort became a metaphor for moral discomfort — the mental pebble that won't let you walk easy until you've dealt with it.
- origin
- latin scrupulus, a sharp little pebble in your shoe
- old usage
- once meant a unit of weight, 20 grains
- synonym crew
- qualm, compunction, conscience's annoying intern
- plot twist
- having none is called unscrupulous, and it shows