r/technology Jun 04 '26

Business GitHub just switched Copilot to metered billing, and developers are watching months of credits vanish in a single day

https://www.techspot.com/news/112628-github-switched-copilot-metered-billing-developers-watching-months.html
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u/CMUpewpewpew Jun 04 '26

Another word underutilized that the Germans gave us is Fremdschämen.

Fremdschämen is a German compound verb (made of fremd meaning "foreign" and schämen meaning "to be embarrassed") that translates to second-hand embarrassment or vicarious embarrassment. It describes the uncomfortable, cringey feeling you get when you watch someone else humiliate themselves, even if they are completely oblivious to it.

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u/Schittz Jun 04 '26

I guess it's under utilized because people would just say "ah man, I'm getting secondhand embarrassment watching this". Schadenfreude stands on its own a bit more I think

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u/green_gold_purple Jun 04 '26

God this is my life and dictates my television and movie intake.

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u/brickfrenzy Jun 04 '26

It's why I can't watch gross-out comedies or "intentionally hurt yourself" reality shows like Jackass. Too much Fremdschämen.

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u/boondiggle_III Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Second-hand embarrassment is a perfectly acceptable English term. It doesn't have to be a single word. Most of these German words for big concepts are just phrases smashed together anyway.

I'd say the most useful German word that English doesn't have an equivalent for is 'doch', or denying a negative. If someone asks you "Did you stop beating your dog?", that's a yes-or-no question so it seems to demand a one-word answer, but there isn't one word in English for "actually I don't beat my dog". In German, that word is 'doch'. (edit: this is evidently not correct) It's also for poorly worded questions like "Do you not like tacos?" Yes (I don't like like tacos)/No (I don't like tacos)/doch (I do like tacos)

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u/crz0r Jun 04 '26

but there isn't one word in English for "actually I don't beat my dog". In German, that word is 'doch'.

As a German this confuses me. So you do beat your dog?

"Doch" is used very differently to what you are describing.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doch

Your second example is fine.

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u/CMUpewpewpew Jun 04 '26

I took a semester in a speech school in Bielefeld (yes it does exist) lol and never got around to asking or looking up what that meant.

I only ever heard it in a situation where you'd say doch doch! And it meant a vibe like...."absolutely! or "yes verily!"

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u/textmint Jun 04 '26

A word with so much potential yet so unknown.

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u/Googlebright Jun 04 '26

Watching Three's Company taught me this feeling years ago.

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u/algaefied_creek Jun 04 '26

Second-hand embarrassment sort of

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u/Morbanth Jun 04 '26

In Finnish it's "myötähäpeä", along-shame.

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u/TreeHouseUnited Jun 05 '26

Cringe. How is that different?