M-W's Word of the Day Newsletter: Oneiric - plus, trending lookups galore!


Published by M-W's Word of the Day on June 14th, 2019 2:20am. 136 views.


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Merriam-Webster  
 
WORD OF THE DAY
June 14, 2019
 
 
 
 
 

oneiric Audio pronunciation

 
adjective | oh-NYE-rik  
 
Definition
 
:
of or relating to dreams : dreamy
 
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Did You Know?
 
The notion of using the Greek noun oneiros (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective oneiric wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the late 1500s and early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few oneiros spin-offs, giving English oneirocriticism, oneirocritical, and oneirocritic (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation). The surge in oneiros derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus. In the 17th century, English speakers also melded Greek oneiros with the combining form ­-mancy ("divination") to create oneiromancy, meaning "divination by means of dreams."
 
 
Examples of ONEIRIC
 
The paintings, filled with fantastical imagery conjured by the artist's imagination, have a compellingly oneiric quality.
 
"Somewhere along the twisty path of the twentieth century, Vladimir Nabokov, our brilliant dreamer-in-chief, came into contact with [aeronautical engineer and philosopher John W.] Dunne's theories of oneiric prophecy and was evidently inspired by them."
Nicholson Baker, The New Republic, 21 Feb. 2018
 
Name That Synonym
 
Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of oneiric: AARYFAW.
 
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