Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Nightmare |
NightmareNoun1. A situation resembling a terrifying dream. 2. A terrifying or deeply upsetting dream. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "nightmare" was first used: sometime around 1300. (references) |
Note: Nightmare \Night"mare`\, noun. [Night mare incubus. See Mare incubus.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of being attacked with this hideous sensation, denotes wrangling and failure in business. For a young woman, this is a dream prophetic of disappointment and unmerited slights. It may also warn the dreamer to be careful of her health, and food. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Nightmare (A). A sensation in sleep as if something heavy were sitting on our breast. (Anglo-Saxon, mara, an incubus.) This sensation is called in French cauchemar. Anciently it was not unfrequently called the night-hag, or the riding of the witch. Fuseli used to eat raw beef and pork chops for supper to produce nightmare, that he might draw his horrible creations. (See Mare's Nest .) "I do believe that the witch we call Mara has been dealing with you."- Sir Walter Scott: The Betrothed, chap. xv. Nightmare of Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, 1804-1814, 1821). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A nightmare is a dream of particular intensity and with content that the sleeper finds disturbing. They are usually associated with rapid-eye movement (REM) periods of sleep, and may be accompanied by physical movements.
Up to about the eighteenth century, nightmares were often considered to be the work of demons, which were thought to sit on the chests of sleepers. Various forms of magic and spiritual possession were also advanced as causes. In nineteenth century Europe, the vagaries of diet were thought to be responsible. For example, a character in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens attributes the ghost he sees to "... an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato..." In a similar vein, the Household Cyclopedia of 1881 offers the following advice about nightmares:
In modern times, nightmares are thought to relate either to physiological causes, such as a high fever, or to psychological ones, such as unusual trauma or stress in the sleeper's life. The occasional body movements seen in nightmares may have a use in awakening the sleeper, thus helping to avoid the frighening dream-situation.
- "Great attention is to be paid to regularity and choice of diet. Intemperance of every kind is hurtful, but nothing is more productive of this disease than drinking bad wine. Of eatables those which are most prejudicial are all fat and greasy meats and pastry... Moderate exercise contributes in a superior degree to promote the digestion of food and prevent flatulence; those, however, who are necessarily confined to a sedentary occupation, should particularly avoid applying themselves to study or bodily labor immediately after eating... Going to bed before the usual hour is a frequent cause of night-mare, as it either occasions the patient to sleep too long or to lie long awake in the night. Passing a whole night or part of a night without rest likewise gives birth to the disease, as it occasions the patient, on the succeeding night, to sleep too soundly. Indulging in sleep too late in the morning, is an almost certain method to bring on the paroxysm, and the more frequently it returns, the greater strength it acquires; the propensity to sleep at this time is almost irresistible."
References and external links:
- Anch, A.M., & Browman, C.P., & Mitler, M.M., & Walsh, J.K. (1988). Sleep: A scientific perspective. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Nightmare."
Synonym: NightmareSynonym: incubus (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Fear | Bug bear, bugaboo; scarecrow; hobgoblin; (demon); nightmare, Gorgon, mormo, ogre, Hurlothrumbo, raw head and bloody bones, fee-faw-fum, bete noire, enfant terrible. |
Hindrance | Encumbrance, incumbrance; clog, skid, shoe, spoke; drag, drag chain, drag weight; stay, stop; preventive, prophylactic; load, burden, fardel, onus, millstone round one's neck, impedimenta; dead weight; lumber, pack; nightmare, Ephialtes, incubus, old man of the sea; remora. |
Imagination | Conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera; phantasm, phantasy; fantasy, fancy; whim, whimsey, whimsy; vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza; air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare. |
Pain | Nightmare, ephialtes, incubus. |
Physical Pain | Spasm, cramp; nightmare, ephialtes; crick, thrill, convulsion, throe; throb. (agitation); pang; colic; kink. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Nightmare |
| English words defined with "nightmare": Antephialtic ♦ bony ♦ cadaverous ♦ Daymare ♦ emaciated, Ephialtes ♦ gaunt ♦ haggard, Hag-ridden ♦ pavor nocturnus, pinched, Pnigalion ♦ skeletal, sleep terror disorder ♦ wasted. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "nightmare": Network File System ♦ Stable Keys. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "nightmare": Pnigalion. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | This is a nightmare. This is a social studies nightmare (The American President; writing credit: Aaron Sorkin.) Let's not make it a nightmare. (Meet the Parents; writing credit: Greg Glienna; Mary Ruth Clarke) Now, without warning, their honeymoon was to become a nightmare. (The Creeping Terror; writing credit: Arthur Ross; Robert Silliphant) Someday this nightmare will be over (Filthy Rich; writing credit: Barry E. Blitzer; Linda Bloodworth-Thomason) Holy nightmare! (Batman; writing credit: Bob Kane; Lorenzo Semple Jr.) | |
Lyrics | Where one man's nightmare is another man's dream (Heat Of The Night; performing artist: Bryan Adams) Whoa, thought it was a nightmare, (RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE; performing artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival) A nightmare through and through (It's over Now; performing artist: Neve) Beyond the reach of a nightmare come true (New Horizons; performing artist: The Moody Blues) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Nightmare (1974) The House in Nightmare Park (1973) Nightmare (1972) Companions in Nightmare (1968) Destination Nightmare (1968) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The nightmare. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The P.O. Department nightmare. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | An Alpine nightmare -- the wild and wooly visions of Col. H. Watterson. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | England's nightmare. The Great Britain Gulliver overpowered and made helpless by French pygmies while asleep. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Clasped 1" by Cerys Jones Commentary: "The nightmare I had trying to photograph my own hands defies description!." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Thomas Carlyle | All evil is like a nightmare; the instant you stir under it, the evil is gone. |
Tori Amos | I see the dream and I see the nightmare, and I believe you can't have the dream without the nightmare. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | This nightmare struck him so forcibly that he afterwards wrote it down |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Getting certification, permissions, and customs clearance, as already mentioned, can become a nightmare without the helping hand of a local partner. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Gerald Ford | In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end. My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | To hear them talk, you'd never know that the nightmare of nuclear annihilation has been lifted from our sleep. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | Every year doctors and nurses spend more time on paperwork and less on patients because of the bureaucratic nightmare the present system has become. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Nightmare" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.22% of the time. "Nightmare" is used about 1,347 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.22% | 1,323 | 6,000 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.74% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.74% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.15% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (common) | 0.15% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,347 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "nightmare": nightmare File System ♦ wake from a nightmare. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "nightmare": nightmare-blur, nightmare-drowning, nightmare-free, nightmare-paradigms, nightmare-plagued, nightmare-range. | |
Ending with "nightmare": near-nightmare, waking-nightmare. | |
Containing "nightmare": real-nightmare-dream. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "nightmare"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | inkub, ankth (anguish, anxiety, Ardor, ardour, dismay, distress, fuss, incubus, inquietude, jitters, nervosity, night-hag, obsession, overanxiety, trepidation, uneasiness, unrest). (various references) | |
Arabic | كابوس, حلم مروع, ذعر عظيم, خبرة مروعة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | кошмар (bugbear, incubus, night-hag). (various references) | |
Chinese | 魘 , 惡夢 , 恶梦, 夢魘 , 寎 (lonesome, start in sleep). (various references) | |
Czech | noèní mùra (night owl), zlý sen, hrùza (awe, dread, fright, horror, terror), dìs (dread, frightfulness). (various references) | |
Danish | mareridt (night-mare). (various references) | |
Dutch | incubus (incubus), angstdroom (incubus), nachtmerrie (incubus), nachtduivel (incubus). (various references) | |
Esperanto | koŝmaro, inkubsonĝo, inkubo (incubus). (various references) | |
Faeroese | marra (incubus). (various references) | |
Farsi | کابوس (Incubus, Mare), خفتک , خواب ناراحت کننده وغم افزا, بختک (Incubus, Mare). (various references) | |
Finnish | painajainen. (various references) | |
French | cauchemar (night-mare). (various references) | |
Frisian | nachtmerje. (various references) | |
German | alptraum, Alpdrücken. (various references) | |
Greek | βραχνάσ, εφιάλτησ (bete noire, incubus), εφιάλτης, εφιαλτικό όνειρο, αγχώδες όνειρο. (various references) | |
Hebrew | חלום בלהות, סיוט. (various references) | |
Hungarian | rémkép (bogey, boggle, bogy, chimaera, chimera, hobgoblin, phantasm, phantom), lidércnyomás (mare, obsession). (various references) | |
Indonesian | mimpi buruk. (various references) | |
Italian | incubo (incubus). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 悪夢 (bad dream). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ナイトメア , あくむ (bad dream), むま. (various references) | |
Korean | 악몽. (various references) | |
Manx | tromlhie (incubus). (various references) | |
Papiamen | pesadía. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ightmarenay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pesadelo (bugaboo, bugbear, incubus, night-hag). (various references) | |
Romanian | obsesie (obsession), groazã (affright, blue funk, dismay, dread, fearfulness, fright, horror, terror, ton), grijã obsedantã, coşmar (incubus, mare). (various references) | |
Russian | кошмар (night-hag, riding-hag). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | noćna mora (bete noire), mora (incubus), košmar (incubus, riding-hag). (various references) | |
Spanish | pesadilla (bete noire, bogey, bogie, bogy, bugaboo, bugbear, pet aversion). (various references) | |
Swedish | mara (incubus), mardröm (incubus, riding-hag). (various references) | |
Turkish | karabasan (heaviness, incubus), kâbus (incubus). (various references) | |
Turkmen | garabasma. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | страхіття (incubus, night-hag, whopper), страшний сон, кошмар (night-hag), відьма (bat, bear-cat, hag, witch), жах (consternation, horrible, horror, terror). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | cơn ác mộng. (various references) | |
Welsh | hunllef. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | incubo. (various references) |
| Medieval Latin | 700-1500 | masca. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "nightmare": nightmares. (additional references) | |
| |
"Nightmare" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: knightmare, nightmair, nightmere. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-h-i-m-n-r-t" | |
-1 letter: earthing, emigrant, hearting, ingather, remating. | |
-2 letters: gahnite, garment, germina, granite, gratine, hairnet, harmine, harming, hearing, heating, hematin, inearth, ingrate, mangier, margent, marting, megahit, metring, migrant, migrate, minaret, mintage, ragtime, raiment, reaming, tangier, teaming, tearing, tegmina, terming, theming. | |
-3 letters: aigret, airmen, anthem, anther, argent, aright, arming, earing, eating, engirt, engram, enigma, etamin, gainer, gaiter. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-g-h-i-m-n-r-t" | |
+1 letter: nightmares, rematching. | |
+2 letters: charmingest, earthmoving, garnishment, merchanting. | |
+3 letters: earthmovings, garnishments, heartwarming, overmatching, thermalizing. | |
+4 letters: cinematograph, histaminergic, hydromagnetic, mouthwatering, thermostating. | |
+5 letters: cinematographs, cinematography, magnetospheric, metamorphosing, pamphleteering, thermomagnetic, thermostatting. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Quotations: Speeches 14. Usage Frequency 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Translations: Ancient 19. Derivations 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
