In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
NIGHTMARE
nightmare
(noun) a terrifying or deeply upsetting dream
nightmare, incubus
(noun) a situation resembling a terrifying dream
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
nightmare (plural nightmares)
(now rare) A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep.
(obsolete) Sleep paralysis.
A very bad or frightening dream.
(figuratively) Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure.
Synonyms
• (demon said to torment sleepers): incubus, succubus, night hag
Source: Wiktionary
Night"mare`, n. Etym: [Night + mare incubus. See Mare incubus.]
1. A fiend or incubus formerly supposed to cause trouble in sleep.
2. A condition in sleep usually caused by improper eating or by digestive or nervous troubles, and characterized by a sense of extreme uneasiness or discomfort (as of weight on the chest or stomach, impossibility of motion or speech, etc.), or by frightful or oppressive dreams, from which one wakes after extreme anxiety, in a troubled state of mind; incubus. Dunglison.
3. Hence, any overwhelming, oppressive, or stupefying influence.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
31 March 2025
IMPROVISED
(adjective) done or made using whatever is available; “crossed the river on improvised bridges”; “the survivors used jury-rigged fishing gear”; “the rock served as a makeshift hammer”
Coffee Trivia
