cauchemar

From Middle French cauchemare, from Old French cauquemare; composed of two elements, cauche +‎ mar.

• First element cauche, from Old French verb from cache, from cauchier (“to press”), from Latin calcō (“trample, tread on”).
• Second element mar, from Middle Dutch mare (“phantom, spirit, nightmare”), from Proto-Germanic *marǭ (“nightmare, incubus”), from Proto-Indo-European *mor- (“malicious female spirit”), related to English homograph mare. More at mare.

• IPA^(key): /kɔʃ.maʁ/, /koʃ.maʁ/[1]

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophone: cauchemars
• Hyphenation: cauche‧mar

cauchemar m (plural cauchemars)

1. nightmare

• rêve

• Bulgarian: кошмар (košmar) (borrowed)
• Esperanto: koŝmaro (borrowed)
• Estonian: košmaar (borrowed)
• Lithuanian: košmaras (borrowed)
• Macedonian: кошмар (košmar) (borrowed)
• Polish: koszmar (borrowed)
• Romanian: coșmar (borrowed)
• Russian: кошмар (košmar) (borrowed)
• Serbo-Croatian: košmar, кошмар (borrowed)