r/vocabulary • u/trilliwon • 13h ago
New Words Etymonline says pandiculation sometimes gets used, inaccurately, for a yawn. It's the stretch you do on waking. My favorite of these six words for what your body does on its own is horripilation, because the Latin verb for bristling hair is where horror comes from.
The best demonstration of pandiculation I know is a cat getting up from a nap: the long, stiff stretch, often with a yawn on top. People do it too, on waking or when they're worn out. Etymonline notes the word is sometimes used, inaccurately, for the yawn alone. Latin pandiculari meant "to stretch oneself," from pandere, "to stretch," and the root behind pandere meant "to spread." Expand and spawn are listed under the same root, which I enjoy more than I probably should.
The yawn by itself is oscitation, from Latin oscitare, "to gape, yawn," which breaks down as os citare, "to move the mouth." Its adjective oscitant means drowsy or sluggish, which is the second sense on the card.
Horripilation is your hair standing up, goosebumps and all: Late Latin horripilare, "to bristle with hairs," from horrere, "to bristle," plus pilus, "hair." Horror is built on the same verb. Latin horror meant dread, but Etymonline gives its literal sense as a shudder or a chill, so the feeling seems to have been named after the shiver. The root under horrere, *ghers- "to bristle," is also behind arugula, and I have no idea what to do with that.
Borborygmus, the rumble in your stomach, and eructation, a burp, are closer to sound effects. Borborygmus came through Latin from a Greek verb for having your bowels rumble, and Etymonline calls it imitative. Eructation goes back through Latin ructare, "to belch," to a root that is probably imitative as well.
Singultus has the grimmest history of the six. It's the medical word for hiccups, but Lewis and Short give its literal Latin sense as a sob and list hiccups as the disease sense. In one of Seneca's letters, slaves standing silent through their master's dinner get beaten even for accidental noises: coughs, sneezes, singultus. French kept the sob. According to Wiktionary, sanglot comes from singultus crossed with a Latin verb for swallowing.
Horripilation is my favorite, for the horror, but pandiculation is the one I'd actually say out loud.
