The story
Gigil is Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines, and its dictionary definition is physical: an overwhelming feeling, usually of delight, that shows in gritted teeth and clenched hands. It mostly comes out at the sight of something unbearably cute, a baby's cheeks or a puppy's paws, and the urge that goes with it is to squeeze or pinch.
The word is old Malayo-Polynesian stock, shared with Malay. Tagalog builds on it freely: manggigil is to be seized by it, and gigil na gigil means beside yourself. Gigil can be angry too, since the same clenched jaw can come from irritation. Context decides which.
Psychologists gave the cute version an English name only recently. In 2015 Oriana Aragón and colleagues published research on 'cute aggression', tender feelings expressed through aggressive-looking urges, and later work suggests about half of adults know it. Other languages had words already: Malay has geram and Thai has man khiaao. In March 2025 the Oxford English Dictionary added gigil itself.
What makes it hard to put into English is that English splits it in two, the feeling (adoration) and the noise (squee), and has nothing for the clenched jaw that joins them.
A scene: a christening in Quezon City. An aunt takes one look at the baby's thighs, folds her hands into fists and says through her teeth, 'Nakakagigil.' Nobody hands her the baby.