nightmare的词源
英文词源
- nightmare
- nightmare: [13] The mare of nightmare is not the same word as mare ‘female horse’. It comes from Old English mære, which denoted a sort of evil spirit or goblin which sat on sleepers’ chests and gave them bad dreams. That is what the compound nightmare meant too when it emerged in the early Middle English period, and the metaphorical application to the bad dream supposedly caused by this incubus is not recorded until the mid-16th century.
=> yell - nightmare (n.)
- late 13c., "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare (3) "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus." Meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" first recorded 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831. Cognate with Middle Dutch nachtmare, German Nachtmahr.
中文词源
英语单词nightmare（恶梦）由night（夜 晚）+mare（母马、母驴）构成。“恶梦”与“夜晚”的关系很好理解，与“母马、母驴”有什么关系呢？其实，nightmare中的mare不是“母 马、母驴”，而是古英语中的一种妖怪，类似goblin（地精）或incubus（梦淫妖）。人们相信这种妖怪会在人的睡梦中掐住人的脖子，使人窒息而 亡。由于恶梦常常使人感觉到窒息，因此人们便认为恶梦是mare这种妖怪在作怪，所以把恶梦叫做nightmare。
nightmare：['naɪtmeə] n. 恶梦，梦魇adj.恶梦的，梦魇的，恶梦似的
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：nightmare 词源，nightmare 含义。
night,夜晚，mare,女妖精，梦淫妖，词源同murder.原指夜间与男人交媾的女妖，使人窒息和虚脱，后引申词义噩梦。
mare来源于古英语。
词根词缀： night夜晚 + mare噩梦
