nympholept

[ nim-fuh-lept ]

noun

1. a person seized with nympholepsy.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nympholept¹

1805–15; < Greek nymphólēptos caught by nymphs, equivalent to nýmph ( ē ) nymph + -o- -o- + lḗptos, verbid of lambánein to seize

Example Sentences

Alas, this Italy has too long swept Heroic ashes up for hour-glass sand; Of her own past, impassioned nympholept!

From Project Gutenberg

In Dostoievsky's books, madmen, idiots, drunkards, consumptives, degenerates, visionaries, reactionaries, anarchists, nympholepts, criminals and saints jostle one another in a sort of "Danse Macabre," but not one of them but has his moment of ecstasy.

From Project Gutenberg

It has no aim of imitating springtime noises, but seeks to stimulate by suggestion the hearer's creative imagination, and provoke by a musical telepathy the emotions that swayed the nympholept composer.

From Project Gutenberg

Thanks to it—all thanks to it—I did not become a nympholept.

From Project Gutenberg

We are all nympholepts in running after our ideals—and none more than yourself, indeed!

From Project Gutenberg