cauchemar

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French cauchemar.

Noun

cauchemar (plural cauchemars)

1. (folklore) A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French cauchemare, from Old French cauquemare. By surface analysis, cauque +‎ mar. Compare Walloon tchôcmwår.

• First element from Old French cauche, from the verb chauchier (“to press”), from Latin calcare (“to trample, tread on”), from calx (“heel”), of uncertain origin.
• Second element from Frankish *marā (“evil spirit”), from Proto-West Germanic *marā, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ (“nightmare, incubus”), from Proto-Indo-European *mor- (“malicious female spirit”), from *mer- (“to die”); related to the homograph English mare. More at mare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔʃ.maʁ/, /koʃ.maʁ/

• Audio (Paris):

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Massy)):

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• Homophone: cauchemars
• Hyphenation: cauche‧mar

Noun

cauchemar m (plural cauchemars)

1. nightmare

   Coordinate term: rêve

   Je n'ai pas pu dormir hier soir parce que j'ai fait trop de cauchemars.

   I couldn't sleep last night because I had too many nightmares.

   C'était un rêve ou un cauchemar?

   Was it a dream or a nightmare?

   Il a remué toute la nuit, je crois qu'il a fait des cauchemars.

   He was tossing and turning all night, I think [that] he had nightmares.

   J'ai eu un accident ce matin! Je vais bien mais ça a été un vrai cauchemar!

   I had an accident this morning! I'm okay but it was a true nightmare!

Usage notes

Cauchemar is often used with the transitive verb faire [to do/to make] instead of the verb avoir [to have]. Faire un cauchemar = to have a nightmare.

Derived terms

• cauchemardant
• cauchemardement
• cauchemarder
• cauchemardesque

Descendants

• Mauritian Creole: kosmar
• → Bulgarian: кошмар (košmar)
• → English: cauchemar
• → Esperanto: koŝmaro
• → Estonian: košmaar
• → Ido: koshmaro
• → Lithuanian: košmaras
• → Macedonian: кошмар (košmar)
• → Polish: koszmar
• → Romanian: coșmar
• → Russian: кошмар (košmar), кошма́ръ (košmár) — pre-1918 spelling
  • → Belarusian: кашмар (kašmar)
  • → Georgian: კოშმარი (ḳošmari), კაშმარი (ḳašmari) (nonstandard)
  • → Kazakh: кошмар (košmar)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Latin script: košmar

  Cyrillic script: кошмар

• → Ukrainian: кошмар (košmar)
• → Volapük: kojmar
• → Yiddish: קאָשמאַר (koshmar)