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Nightmare (A)

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A sensation in sleep as if something heavy were sitting on our breast. (Anglo-Saxon, mara, an incubus.) This sensation is called in French cauchemar. Anciently it was not unfrequently called the night-hag, or the riding of the witch. Fuʹseli used to eat raw beef and pork chops for supper to produce nightmare, that he might draw his horrible creations. (See Mare’s Nest.)

“I do believe that the witch we call Mara has been dealing with you.”—Sir Walter Scott: The Betrothed, chap. xv.

Nightmare of Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769, 1804–1814, 1821).

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Nicolaitans
Nicolas
Nicor (A)
Nicotine
Nidhögg
Niece
Nifiheim
Night
Nightcap (A)
Nightingale
Nightmare (A)
Nihilists
Nihilo
Nil Admirari
Nil Desperandum
Nile
Nilica or Sephalica
Nimble as a Cat on a hot Bakestone
Nimble as Ninepence
Nimbus
Nimini Pimini