Today's Word "Nympholepsy"
Published in Vocabulary
nympholepsy \NIM-feh-lep-see\ (noun) - Frenzied emotions resulting from being captured by nymphs or, for weaker souls, simply seeing them. Hence, emotional anxiety brought on by attempts to attain the unattainable.
"Years of work on his electric fork left Jennings in a state of nympholeptic angst that no psychiatrist could dissipate."
Greek nympholeptos "captured by nymphs, frenzied" from nymphe "young bride, low-level goddess" + leptos "seized," past participle of lambanein "to take, seize." Greek "nymphe" shares an origin with Latin nubere "to cover, veil, marry," nubilis "marriageable," and nubes "a cloud." Another word in this family is Greek nephos "cloud." A person suffering from nympholepsy is a nympholept and the adjective is "nympholeptic."
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