nympholepsy
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A frenzy supposed by ancient peoples to have been induced by nymphs.
- n. An emotional frenzy.
- n. A frenzied state of (usually erotic) emotion, especially concerning something or someone unattainable.
- n. A species of demoniac enthusiasm or possession coming upon one who had accidentally looked upon a nymph; ecstasy.
- n. An ecstasy; a divine frenzy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Examples
-
A terrible malady is she, a malady the ancients knew of and called nympholepsy -- a beautiful name evocative and symbolic of its ideal aspect,
-
The word we want is "nympholepsy", which doesn't quite mean what you think it means.
-
It is this repetition—not the nympholepsy itself, but the endless recurrence of its self-imprisoning instants—that eventually dooms and destroys Humbert.
-
The seduction of Lolita exists in discrete moments that are sufficient in themselves to constitute the heaven and hell of nympholepsy.
-
How often have _we_ -- martyrs to a hopeless nympholepsy -- strayed through that piazza, at the self same hour -- there deemed that the heart would break -- but never thought that it might slowly wither.
-
De Quincey has done so in prose, for instance, and Lord Byron talks of 'The nympholepsy of a fond despair,' though he never was accused of being overridden by his Greek.
-
The most common disease to genius is nympholepsy -- the saddening for a spirit that the world knows not.
Note
The word 'nympholepsy' comes from Greek roots meaning "nymph" and "to seize".
