pnigalion

English

Etymology

From New Latin pnīgalion, from Ancient Greek πνῑγαλίων (pnīgalíōn, “nightmare”), from πνῑ́γω (pnī́gō, “to throttle, strangle”).

Noun

pnigalion (uncountable)

1. (historical) A nocturnal monster in Ancient Greece that would choke its victims; incubus; nightmare.
   • 2011, Shelley R. Adler, Sleep Paralysis, page 41:

     Because the Greeks considered being choked or strangled to be one consequence of a night-mare attack, the entity was also called pnigalion (“throttler”).

   • 2012, Arthur Goldstuck, The Ghost That Closed Down The Town:

     Their guest list of night-time intruders includes: […] the Greek ephialtes ( one who leaps upon ) , mora ( the night 'mare' or monster), pnigalion ( the choker ) and barychnas (the heavy breather); […]

   • 2015, Nandita Chaube, Spirituality and Human Psyche:

     Greeks had the pnigalion (the choker) and the barychnas (the heavy breather) troubling the sleepers (Keissling, 1977).

2. (archaic, medicine) sleep paralysis; nightmare
   • 1936, James Richard Whitwell, Historical Notes on Psychiatry, page 170:

     Incubus (synonyms, Pnigalion, ephialtes, epibole ) .— It is an elementary form of epilepsy .

   • 1991, George Mora, Benjamin G. Kohl, Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance:

     Themison names it pnigalion, from the Greek word for suffocating.

   • 2022, Lucas Lex DeJong, Unmapped Darkness: The Journals of the Red Raider:

     It was not merely unconsciousness, it was as if the mind were being smothered by some malign force, a pnigalion, throttling restfulness into a state of paralysis.

Anagrams

• Lopingian