The very uncomfortable sympathetic feeling experienced while you watch someone else embarrassing themselves. This feeling is often intensified when the person embarrassing themself is not aware of how embarrassing their behavior is. In this case it is more like you are feeling the embarrassment on their behalf.
George: OMG, dude...this talent show is killing me. The fat girl dancing to 'Ice, Ice, Baby'...
Dude: I know man, I know...all the wrong things are jiggling--
George: --And her dancing! Everyone is laughing and she just keeps going. It's like a trainwreck right now. I don't even want to watch!
Dude: Total vicarious embarrassment right now, man.
George: Ugh. Let me know when it's over.
The Latin phrase "incidit in scyllam, cupiens vitare charybdim" comes from Greek mythology in the story of Odysseus known also as Ulysses. Scylla and Charybdis were rocks on either side of a narrow inlet. The phrase means trying to avoid Charybdis one founders on Scylla. It represents the idea of having to choose between two evils and has the force of being "on the horns of a dilemma," "between the devil and the deep blue sea."
A Sanders voter withholding a vote from Clinton will run into a Trump presidency, incidit in scyllam, cupiens vitare charybdim!
A sunburn or suntan focused on the left arm. It is caused by the left side of the body being the only half that gets exposed to sunlight while driving. Presumably, it would be located on the right side of the body in countries where they drive on the left side of the road.
British slang for a scientist or technical expert, esp . when the speaker is not certain of the expert’s specific field of study. Not necessarily derogatory, but typically used by persons without a technical background. In the US, the equivalent would be “egghead”, “squint”, or “geek.”
Origin of the word is unknown. Started sometime in World War 2. Given the typical evolution of British slang, could easily have started because what these experts did was confusing or “baffling” to the common person.
When you have to pee in a movie but don’t want to miss anything, and must do the following mental equation: will the amount I have to pee cause enough discomfort to diminish my attention capacity for the remainder of the movie to an extent which is greater than the amount of the movie I would miss by making a mad dash to the restroom.
I saw Satantango last night, wonderful film but by the 5th hour I had to start doing peecalculus.