Re: colorless green ideas

Philippe Caquant wrote:

>By the way,  I would very much like to know the origin
>of the english word: "a nightmare". I find it very
>strange and evocative.
>
>(Well, I thought so because I was thinking of the
>female of a horse, but I just found in my etymological
>dictionnary that the part "mar" in the french word
>"cauchemar" comes from a germanic word meaning "night
>ghost" or something like that, so it's probably the
>same. Actually, I preferred the horse, much more
>mysterious).
>
>
My dictionary agrees.  According to it, it comes from the Old English
'mare' [mare], which described a ghost that opressed sleeping people.
It's unrelated to a female horse, which came from 'm(i)ere'.  Apparently
it's cognate to german 'Mahre'.

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