different between aberration vs nightmare

English

Etymology

A learned borrowing from Latin aberr?ti? (“relief, diversion”), first attested in 1594 , from aberr? (“wander away, go astray”), from ab (“away”) + err? (“wander”). Compare French aberration. Equivalent to aberrate +? -ion.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?æb.???e?.?n?/

Noun

aberration (countable and uncountable, plural aberrations)

1. The act of wandering; deviation from truth, moral rectitude; abnormal; divergence from the straight, correct, proper, normal, or from the natural state. [Late 16^th century.]
2. (optics) The convergence to different foci, by a lens or mirror, of rays of light emanating from one and the same point, or the deviation of such rays from a single focus; a defect in a focusing mechanism that prevents the intended focal point. [Mid 18^th century.]
3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer. [Mid 18^th century.]
   1. (astronomy, by extension) The tendency of light rays to preferentially strike the leading face of a moving object (the effect underlying the above phenomenon).
4. A partial alienation of reason. [Early 19^th century.]
5. A mental disorder, especially one of a minor or temporary character. [Early 19^th century.]
6. (zoology, botany) Atypical development or structure; deviation from the normal type; an aberrant organ. [Mid 19^th century.]
7. (medicine) A deviation of a tissue, organ or mental functions from what is considered to be within the normal range.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

French

Etymology

From Latin aberrationem, aberratio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.b?.?a.sj??/

Noun

aberration f (plural aberrations)

1. aberration
2. the state of being aberrant
3. (astronomy) aberration
4. (optics) aberration
5. (physiology) aberration or mutation

Related terms

• aberrer

Further reading

• “aberration” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• abornerait, arboraient

English

Alternative forms

• night-mare (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English night-mare, from Old English *nihtmare, equivalent to night +? mare (“evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person”). Cognate with Scots nichtmare and nichtmeer, Dutch nachtmerrie, Middle Low German nachtm?r, German Nachtmahr.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?na?t.m??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /na?t.m???/, [n???.m???]

Noun

nightmare (plural nightmares)

1. (now rare) A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep. [from 14th c.]
   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy:

     It haunted me, however, more than once, like the nightmare.

   • 1843, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Black Cat’:

     I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight—an incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off—incumbent eternally upon my heart!

2. (now chiefly historical) A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; Sleep paralysis. [from 16th c.]
   • 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 209:

     Had been afflicted in the night with that strange complaint called the nightmare.

3. A very bad or frightening dream. [from 19th c.]

   I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.

   • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[1]

     With his crude potato-sack mask and fear-inducing toxins, The Scarecrow, a “psychopharmacologist” at an insane asylum, acts as a conjurer of nightmares, capable of turning his patients’ most terrifying anxieties against them.

4. (figuratively) Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure. [from 20th c.]

   Cleaning up after identity theft can be a nightmare of phone calls and letters.

Synonyms

• (demon said to torment sleepers): incubus, succubus, night hag

Related terms

• nightmarish
• daymare

Translations