The word 'twinge' is a correct and usable word in written English.
It is used to describe a sudden, brief sharp pain or feeling of discomfort. For example, "I felt a sudden twinge in my lower back when I bent over."
And I can't deny the twinge of pride I felt each time the smiley face appeared – perhaps the age of the adult star chart really is upon us.
On every occasion that I have clicked "share", a twinge in my stomach has reminded me of my own powerlessness and has made me feel guilty and vain for engaging in so-called slacktivism.
Such folk tend to come in two forms: narrow specialists who know the last detail about tax or tanks (and hang out in the Brookings Institution or Rand); and committed ideologues bent on weeding out the last twinge of socialism (the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute).
Even then, though, at the very end of Mr Greengrass's riveting film, many of us will experience a twinge of pity for its other captain, too".Captain Phillips" is now in cinemas in America and Britain.
He has a point.It is hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy for Mr Romney.
Shamata, that twinge of joy for someone else's sorrow, is what much of the world seems to feel about Dubai's financial fall to earth.
Watching a big hit on a player now comes with the same twinge of guilt as watching clips of Muhammad Ali being pummelled.
I feel a brief twinge of unease (a city dweller's reaction to a quiet, deserted street; out here, silence is usually nothing more than the absence of noise) when a car passes the lot and slows as the driver stares at us.
They also note with a twinge of pride that Mr Mugabe has squandered a beneficent colonial economic legacy.
So it is understandable that when on January 1st import tariffs on maize (along with beans, sugar and milk) were finally eliminated, many Mexicans felt a twinge of regret.
The author, Rex Feral, described in the Paladin catalogue as "a professional killer" who "feels no twinge of guilt at doing his job", is really a divorced mother of two who has never fired a gun.
