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WonderLanguage fact

The English word 'nightmare' first meant not a bad dream but the 'mare', a demon believed to sit on sleepers' chests at night. It came to mean any frightening dream only in the 19th century.

Etymology

Language

The story behind the card

In Old English a mære was a goblin or evil spirit that settled on sleepers and smothered them. It has nothing to do with mare meaning a female horse, which comes from a different Old English word; the two only sound alike. The sensation it described is now called sleep paralysis: the mind wakes during the dreaming stage of sleep while the body still cannot move, often with a feeling of weight on the chest. Many cultures have a similar figure. In Turkish folklore it is the karabasan, a dark presence said to press down on sleepers. Only from around 1829 did 'nightmare' come to mean any bad dream.

Türkçe oku
İngilizcede kâbus anlamına gelen “nightmare” sözcüğü başlangıçta kötü bir rüyayı değil, geceleri uyuyanların göğsüne çöktüğüne inanılan “mare” adlı kötü bir ruhu anlatıyordu. Her türlü korkutucu rüya anlamını ancak 19. yüzyılda kazandı.

Eski İngilizcede “mære”, uyuyanların üstüne çöküp onları boğduğuna inanılan bir cin ya da kötü ruhtu. Dişi at anlamındaki “mare” ile hiçbir ilgisi yoktur; o sözcük Eski İngilizcedeki başka bir kökten gelir, ikisi yalnızca birbirine benzer. Anlatılan duygunun bugünkü adı uyku felcidir: Uykunun rüya görülen evresinde zihin uyanır, ama beden henüz kıpırdayamaz; insan çoğu zaman göğsünde bir ağırlık hisseder. Pek çok kültürde buna benzer bir varlık vardır. Türk halk inançlarında bu varlık karabasandır; geceleri uyuyanın üstüne çöktüğüne inanılan karanlık bir karaltı. “Nightmare” sözcüğü her türlü kötü rüyayı anlatmaya ancak 1829 dolaylarında başladı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Nightmare
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