What is the origin of the word 'nightmare'?

Mare has three different meanings with three different origins in English: Having mare (pronounced 'maa-ray') mean 'sea' is a commonly used in physics, which is a great pointer to the fact that the word originated from Latin. read more

The word comes from Old English mære ('monster'), which in turn came from Proto-Germanic maron ('monster', 'imp', 'goblin'). This word is rooted in the word mora, in PIE, whose PIE root is mer- . The word exists in many forms throughout Europe with the same meaning. read more

Mare comes from the Proto-Germanic word *maron. Nightmare was used to describe 'a bad dream caused by an incubus' in the 16th century, and by 1829 it was used to describe 'a bad dream' in general. read more

The word"nightmare" is derived from the Old English"mare", a mythological demon or goblin who torments others with frightening dreams. Subsequently, the prefix"night-" was added to stress the dream aspect. read more

A female horse is called a mare and the word originates from Old English, which further had its roots in Proto Germanic. It is one of those words where we still do not know how they came to be in Proto-German. Proto-German's parent is Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language, and this root does not have a parent in PIE. read more

Instead, it comes from Old English maere 'goblin, incubus.' The word was nigt-mare in 1300, and it referred to an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation. By 1350, it was nytmare and in 1440 it was nyghte mare. read more

The word"nightmare" is derived from the Old English"mare", a mythological demon or goblin who torments others with frightening dreams. Subsequently, the prefix"night-" was added to stress the dream aspect. The word"nightmare" is cognate with the older Dutch term nachtmerrie and German Nachtmahr. read more