29. Origin of the word "Nightmare"

Source: www.sleepfoundation.org

According to Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of ‘nightmare’ in English language was around 1300 BC which was meant to denote ‘an evil female spirit or monster thought to lie upon and suffocate sleepers’¹. According to folklore, when the ‘maere’ came to visit, the victims would feel a heavy weight on the chest, hence losing the ability to move. It was believed that these creatures were summoned by sorceresses and witches. The root of this comes from ‘maere’ of Old English. .  Sometimes the word even meant a goblin that would ride on people’s chests bringing on bad dreams. The visions that the mare bought upon were called mare rides.

Surprisingly enough, other languages had their own versions of the word ‘mare’, which meant evil spirits, demons and goblin-like creatures. So, we have examples of ‘mahr’ in Germany, a ‘marra’ in Denmark and a ‘mare’ in French²In the Scandinavian culture, we have reference of the ‘Ynglinga saga’, a legendary Old Norse saga from the 13^th century. Accordingly, Valandi, the Swedish King was killed by a mare which was conjured by a Finnish sorceress, and was commissioned by his wife³. The mare crushed the king’s legs, pressed down on his head and killed him. In German legends too, the ‘mare’ was used to denote creatures such as the alp, trud, mare and mart that invaded peaceful sleep. A number of methods ranging from plugging up the keyhole to getting in bed backwards were practiced by people to ward off mares and protect bad dreams⁴.

We also have examples of folk stories that talked about supernatural creatures riding a horse that left anyone who saw them sweaty and exhausted the next day. These creatures also created havoc to trees. In German, the word ‘marōn’ was used for this. The prefix- night- was added later to emphasize that these demons visited at night. It is believed that nightmare took the form of a female horse, and the ‘mare’ of ‘nightmare’ had a distinct meaning. Over the centuries the term was used to refer to any frightening dream.

1. lexico.com/en/definition/nightmare  

2.https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/original-nightmare-demon-suffocation-night terror 

3.https://books.google.co.in/books?id=71U7xXIBbUgC&pg=PA16&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

4.  https://theculturetrip.com/europe/articles/the-creepy-origin-of-the-word-nightmare/