What’s the origin of the word “nightmare”?
- A nightmare originally referred not just to a bad dream, but to a supernatural being believed to sit on a sleeper’s chest and cause bad dreams or suffocation.
📜 History: The word comes from Old English “mare,” a mythological demon-like creature from Germanic folklore. Combined with “night,” it became “night-mare”—literally a demon of the night.
🤔 Trivia: In older usage (up to the 1700s), “a nightmare” could mean sleep paralysis or chest pressure during sleep, which now has a scientific explanation but was once blamed on spirits or witches.
