Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One possessed by an evil spirit; a demoniac. In the early church the energumens were officially recognized as a separate class, to be benefited spiritually and mentally by special prayer for them, frequent benediction, and daily imposition of the exorcist's hands.
Wiktionary
- n. A person possessed by an evil ghost, spirit, or entity.
- n. A frantic and hysterical person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Eccl. Antiq.) One possessed by an evil spirit; a demoniac.
Etymologies
- From Latin energumenus, from Ancient Greek ἐνεργούμενον (energoúmenon), from verb ἐνεργέω (energeō, "to influence"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“So what if I am quite a spectacular energumen, at least I'm full of surprises.”
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“On the left is a prostrate energumen striking his forehead against the ground, with”
“At any rate, in Oxford the young energumen found himself happy and merry beyond words: he worked brilliantly, was a notable figure in the Union debates, argued passionately against every conventional English tradition, and attacked authority, complacence, and fetichism of every kind.”
“Nevertheless, they did not make him out to be an energumen for all that.”
“His verses I detest, but I love to hear him recite them -- he has the air of an energumen.”
“A few hours had sufficed to break the spirit of the energumen, who now declared that he recognized the authority of the magistrates and begged forgiveness for having insulted them.”
“And in a leading article of the "Trumpet," Keck characterized Ladislaw's speech at a Reform meeting as "the violence of an energumen -- a miserable effort to shroud in the brilliancy of fireworks the daring of irresponsible statements and the poverty of a knowledge which was of the cheapest and most recent description.”
“In the first place, it is my duty to acknowledge that but for your interference yesterday the gigantic energumen by whom I was unexpectedly beset would have slain me.”
“Ladislaw's speech at a Reform meeting as "the violence of an energumen -- a miserable effort to shroud in the brilliancy of fireworks the daring of irresponsible statements and the poverty of a knowledge which was of the cheapest and most recent description.”
“He coloured and looked astonished, as well as annoyed; and the words had no sooner escaped my lips than I felt a shock of alarm lest such an anticipation of words -- very far from being words of course, easy to divine -- should have betrayed me as an exceptional being, a sort of quiet energumen, whom every one, Bertha above all, would shudder at and avoid.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘energumen’.
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phrontistery - e
from phrontistery.info
ephod, epact, eozoic, eonism, ensiform, ensanguine, enoptromancy, enounce, enosimania, ennomic, enneagon, eolith and 616 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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difficult words
ordure, tatterwallop, callipygian, odious, colophon, cynosure, hardener, emollience, valetudinarian, demonym, volage, polysemantic and 260 more...
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Oofy
States of being
seeress, honey bucket, donkeyman, poopyhead, halfwit, vixenish, galoot, hoity toity, shitkicker, miserabilist, wanker, clueless and 261 more...
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EN - funny (single) words
"Fornication" is not equal to "formication".
Words with funny meaning, spelling or both.barratry, bastinado, bezonian, bibcock, bibliobibuli, biffy, bodewash, boeotian, boondoggle, borborygmic, bosky, brobdingnagian and 729 more...
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Demongering
....
diablerie, grimoire, ouija, dybbuk, sciomancy, necromancy, cacodemon, fallen angel, choronzon, kokomo, demonology, lilith and 650 more...
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Alejandro's list
krukolibidinous, screed, energumen, frotteurism, anaphroditus, doppelgänger, polysemous, estrapade, polysemous, kerfuffle, pseudandry, daemon
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assorted unsorted
omnigatherum, spleen, snapdragon, vulgar, bien pensant, desiderata, dissertating, pissant, geis, weird, paradox, detritus and 21 more...
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Malfeas notes
Descriptive words for an upcoming project.
stippled, tumid, turgid, putrescent, primeval, moiety, musk, prolix, excrescence, septentrion, wherry, jumentous and 44 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for energumen.
lquilter "Ervil (LeBaron) was a charismatic energumen in the tradition of Charles Manson and, more recently, the Reverend Jim Jones of Guyana fame."
-- source: Ben Bradlee, Jr., and Dale Van Atta, Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story of Ervil LeBaron and the Lambs of God), Chapter 15, pp.223-224.) Oct 28, 2009
yarb One possessed by an evil spirit; a demoniac.
'Keck characterized Ladislaw's speech at a Reform meeting as "the violence of an energumen--a miserable effort to shroud in the brilliancy of fireworks the daring of irresponsible statements and the poverty of a knowledge which was of the cheapest and most recent description."
"That was a rattling article yesterday, Keck," said Dr. Sprague, with sarcastic intentions. "But what is an energumen?"
"Oh, a term that came up in the French Revolution," said Keck.'
- George Eliot, Middlemarch Feb 21, 2008