Aloha Amazing Archduchesses and Adequate Archdukes. Welcome to Word Geek Wednesday: Where logic meets language, and curiosity sparks creativity. This week we’re are having nightmares. Wait… no. We’re talking about the word nightmare, extricating it from liminality.
Modern Meaning
nightmare
noun
night·mare
ˈnīt-ˌmer
1: an evil spirit formerly thought to oppress people during sleep
2: a frightening dream that usually awakens the sleeper
3: something (such as an experience, situation, or object) having the monstrous character of a nightmare or producing a feeling of anxiety or terror
“Nightmare.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nightmare. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.
Original Meaning
Well, this one’s kind of obvious, right? The word ‘mare’ is right in it so it obviously has something to do with horses, right?
That would be too easy. The ‘mare’ in nightmare isn’t equine in nature at all. Mare comes to us in various forms from Norse, German, and Dutch, but all meaning the same thing, incubus.
Well, incubus or night-goblin, but the latter’s music career never really took off. Wait, what is an incubus really?
Incubi and Succubi
In modern usage, an incubus is the male counterpart to a succubus. Both are demonic entities that want to take you to pound town.
But mare used to just mean an oppressive sleep. When added to night, it wasn’t a bad dream, but an entity that tried to suffocate you while you slept. After a few centuries, the entity went away and nightmare became just the sensation of not being able to breathe in your sleep. Then a couple of centuries after that, shifted in meaning to just any bad dream. Before just a couple years later describing any generally distressing experience.
Obligatory Tie-In to my Book
In The Observer (and now the larger Spirit Saga with The Demon being on pre-order), spirits try to influence the living through suggestion. One of the easiest times to do that is while we are asleep. The type of spirit that does this most often are Tricksters. Tricksters are non-malevolent spirits who love to cause chaos and confusion. Now, while they don’t intend to do harm, that doesn’t mean they won’t use fear as a tool for their manipulations.
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Well, that’s all for this week’s Word Geek Wednesday. If you have any suggestions for next week, put them in the comments.
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