feel
feel – sostantivo numerabile, di solito plurale
I almost can’t handle all the feels I get these days.
This is a game that punches you right in the feels.
His story made me feel some feels and think some thinks, and that’s worth something.
It wasn’t a full out emotional attachment but it was enough to get the feels flowing.
Il sostantivo feel è in circolazione dal XV secolo ma negli ultimi anni ha preso piede – specialmente sui social – l’uso del termine come sostantivo numerabile e spesso declinato al plurale.
I feels sono le emozioni intense, soprattutto quelle provocate da un libro, un film o un videogioco, come nel secondo esempio dato qui sopra. E quell’esempio è interessante anche perché indica che i feels risiedono nel corpo, probabilmente nello stomaco, così che quando sono particolarmente intensi ci sembra appunto di aver ricevuto un pugno allo stomaco. L’associazione tra emozioni e quella parte anatomica ha radici profonde nel linguaggio, basti pensare a espressioni come gut feelings o reactions, fire in your belly e my stomach churns.
L’acronimo TFW, che sta per That feel when…, si usa per introdurre un’idea o una reazione con cui si pensa che l’interlocutore potrà identificarsi o che comunque risulti immediatamente riconoscibile. Così come l’uso di feels, presuppone una serie di reazioni condivise – all’arte o a esperienze personali – che non hanno bisogno di ulteriori spiegazioni o analisi. La forma abbreviata del sostantivo è tipica del linguaggio su internet e sui social.
Origini del termine
Sui social media feel sta per feeling e la prima occorrenza risale probabilmente al 2010 quando apparve nella didascalia “I know that feel bro” del disegno di due amici che si abbracciavano.
Traduzione di Loredana Riu
feel – noun C, usu pl
I almost can’t handle all the feels I get these days.
This is a game that punches you right in the feels.
His story made me feel some feels and think some thinks, and that’s worth something.
It wasn’t a full out emotional attachment but it was enough to get the feels flowing.
The noun feel is not new – it’s been around since the fifteenth century – but recently it has been used in a new way, mainly on social media. While the traditional senses are singular, the new use is countable and often plural.
Feels are intense feelings or emotions, especially in response to a work of art such as a book, film, or even a game, as in the second example above. That example is interesting for another reason: it suggests that feels are located somewhere in the body, probably the abdomen, so that when they are particularly intense you feel as if you have been hit there. The association between feelings and this area of the body is deeply rooted in the language: we talk about gut feelings or reactions, or say that someone has fire in their belly, or that your stomach churns when you are scared or excited.
The popular abbreviation TFW, or That feel when… is used to introduce an idea or experience you think people will relate to. Like the plural use of feels, it presupposes a common set of reactions, whether to art or life, that requires no further explanation or analysis. The truncation of the noun is also characteristic of the language of the internet and social media in particular.
Origin
The social media use of feel is short for feeling. It was probably first used online in 2010 in the caption I know that feel bro to a drawing of two men embracing.
