dream

[d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪi̯m]

From Middle English drem, from Old English drēam (“music, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, from earlier *draugmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrowgʰ-mos, from *dʰrewgʰ- (“to deceive, injure, damage”).
The sense of "dream", though not attested in Old English, may still have been present (compare Old Saxon drōm (“bustle, revelry, jubilation", also "dream”)), and was undoubtedly reinforced later in Middle English by Old Norse draumr (“dream”), from same Proto-Germanic root.
Cognate with Scots dreme (“dream”), North Frisian drom (“dream”), West Frisian dream (“dream”), Low German Droom, Dutch droom (“dream”), German Traum (“dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drøm, Norwegian Nynorsk draum, Swedish dröm (“dream”), Icelandic draumur (“dream”). Related also to Old Norse draugr (“ghost, undead, spectre”), Dutch bedrog (“deception, deceit”), German Trug (“deception, illusion”).
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The derivation from Old English drēam is controversial, since the word itself is only attested in writing in its meaning of “joy, mirth, musical sound”. Possibly there was a separate word drēam meaning “images seen while sleeping”, which was avoided in literature due to potential confusion with the “joy” sense. Otherwise, the modern sense must have been borrowed from another Germanic language, most probably Old Norse. Since this is the common sense in all Germanic languages outside the British isles, a spontaneous development from “joy, mirth” to “dream” in Middle English is hardly conceivable. In Old Saxon, the cognate drōm did mean “dream”, but was a rare word.
Attested words for “sleeping vision” in Old English, both of which appeared in The Dream of the Rood, were mǣting (Middle English mæte, mete), from an unclear source, and swefn (Modern English sweven), from Proto-Germanic *swefnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swepno-, *swep-; compare Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).
The verb is from Middle English dremen, possibly (see above) from Old English drīeman (“to make a joyous sound with voice or with instrument; rejoice; sing a song; play on an instrument”), from Proto-Germanic *draumijaną, *draugmijaną (“to be festive, dream, hallucinate”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots dreme (“to dream”), West Frisian dreame (“to dream”), Dutch dromen (“to dream”), German träumen (“to dream”), Swedish drömma (“to dream, muse”), Icelandic dreyma (“to dream”).

inh

have a dream

scary dream

vivid dream

erotic dream

feel like a dream

be in a dream

Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.

1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1:

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
 The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had

1982, “Mad World”, in Roland Orzabal (lyrics), The Hurting, performed by Tears for Fears:

Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.

tahakura

involving the appearance of someone who has died


oneirology

en-noun

oneirology (countable and uncountable, plural oneirologies)

From oneiro- + -logy, historically from Latin oneirologia from Ancient Greek ὄνειρος (óneiros, “dream”).

uder

The study of dreams and their interpretation.


nightmare

From Middle English night-mare, from Old English *nihtmare, equivalent to night + mare (“evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person”). Cognate with Scots nichtmare and nichtmeer, Dutch nachtmerrie, Middle Low German nachtmār, German Nachtmahr.

com

The Night-mare generally ſeizes people ſleeping on their backs, and often begins with frightful dreams, which are ſoon ſucceeded by a difficult reſpiration, a violent oppreſſion on the breaſt, and a total privation of voluntary motion.

1753, John Bond, An Essay on the Incubus, or Night-mare, London: Printed for D. Wilson and T. Durham, at Plato’s Head, in the Strand, page 2:

Had been afflicted in the night with that strange complaint called the nightmare.

1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 209

(now chiefly historical) A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; Sleep paralysis.


lucid dreaming

Coined by psychiatrist Frederik Willem van Eeden in his 1913 paper A Study of Dreams. It is possible that he coined this as a calque of "rêve lucide", which appears in Les Rêves et les Moyens de les Diriger; Observations Pratiques (1867) by Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys.

A form of dreaming in which the conscious mind takes control over the contents of the dream.


oneiric

en-adj

oneiric (comparative more oneiric, superlative most oneiric)

more oneiric (comparative)
most oneiric (superlative)

/əʊˈnaɪ.ɹɪk/

From oneir- + -ic, ultimately from Ancient Greek ὀνείρειος (oneíreios).

Dreams contain oneiric images and oneiric symbols. Both of them are, in fact, 'distorted' manifestations of a latent content which resides in the dreamer's unconscious.

2007, Khaled Besbes, The Semiotics of Beckett's Theatre, →ISBN, page 238:

Rather, novelist Louise de Vilmorin, whose popular novel Madame de had been recently filmed by Max Ophuls, joined Malle in reworking Denon's novella and updating it into a combination of a modern comedy of manners and a daring, even oneiric love story that played with and defied many conventions of the romance genre.

2007, Richard John Neupert, A History of the French New Wave Cinema, →ISBN, page 109:

[…] The Memory Palace [is] Edward Hollis's idiosyncratic tour of a series of historical interiors that have all disappeared or been dismantled. […] Hollis might have done far more with literature's unique contribution to our sense of domestic space as both commemorative and creative. […] [A]mid all the palaces with their dreamlike interiors, there is puzzlingly no place for the many oneiric palaces of poetry.

2013 September 21, Thomas Marks, “The Memory Palace: a Book of Lost Interiors, by Edward Hollis, review [print edition: Compendium of things now missing]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R29:


oneiromancy

en-noun

oneiromancy (countable and uncountable, plural oneiromancies)

/əʊˈnaɪɹəʊ-/

From oneiro- (“dream”) + -mancy (“divination”); compare French onéiromancie, oniromancie.

confix

The general tenor of ideas in dreaming is the same as that with which the mind is occupied awake; and thus may be revealed, in dreams, the state of the mind, the secret hopes and wishes, the profoundly hidden thought, and often the circumstances of the dreamer. The knowledge of this fact, and its dextrous application, by an acute observer, with the credulous, compose the art of oneiromancy.

1832, Samuel Jackson, “Of Sleep and Dreams”, in The Principles of Medicine, Founded on the Structure and Functions of the Animal Organism, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey & Lea, →OCLC, § 2 (Of Dreams), page 306:

(uncountable, in a weak sense) The interpretation of dreams.


dreamscape

He walked between his parents as though through a dreamscape towards the grand building.


oneironaut

/əʊˈnaɪɹənɔːt/

/əˈnaɪɹənɔːt/

During a lucid dream it is possible for the dreamer (or “oneironaut,” as LaBerge puts it) to think reasonably clearly, remember the conditions of waking life and act voluntarily, all while remaining soundly, restfully asleep.

2004 July 18, Lawrence Osborne, “Inward Bound”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-06-07:

Without special training, he was a natural “oneironaut” or “dream navigator.” From early childhood, he could control his dreams. He used to “wake up” within a dream. Fully lucid, he was aware he was dreaming.

2007, Mel Waldman, “Casablanca”, in This Is Not A Murder Mystery, →ISBN, page 47:

A person who explores dream worlds, usually associated with lucid dreaming.


lucid dream

More frequently, however, it has been suggested that lucid dreaming has a potential for enhancing physical well-being. For example, Kellogg (1991) describes how he himself noted rapid healing of an infected tonsil immediately after he awoke from a lucid dream about his throat being healed.

2003, Ashley Christina Mull, Lucid Dreaming in a Sample of College Students:

A dream during which one is conscious that one is dreaming, and may be able to manipulate events.


dreamworld

From dream + world. Compare West Frisian dreamwrâld (“dreamworld”), Dutch droomwereld, dromenwereld (“dreamworld”), German Traumwelt (“dreamworld”), Danish drømmeverden (“dreamworld”), Swedish drömvärld (“dreamworld”).

At midnight they left the air-conditioned dream-world and entered the oven of the street.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 358:

An imaginary world, such as experienced while dreaming.


dreamland

en-noun

dreamland (countable and uncountable, plural dreamlands)

An imaginary world experienced while dreaming.


dreamware

No use talking, I'm an unpractical, useless dealer in dreamware; a metaphysician who don't know how to fry an egg...

The painting could serve as a sign over a shop selling dreamware. Legend erases the line between conscious and unconscious.

1994, William Corbett, Philip Guston's late work:

So much of our contemporary theological dreamware is about escape. We long for heaven. We fix our eyes on the other world. We want out!

(rare) Things dreamed of; fictions or fantasies.


oneiro-

From Ancient Greek ὄνειρος (óneiros, “dream”).


oneiromancer

The interpreter of dreams, like the ancient oneiromancer, often becomes involved in the dream himself and thus runs the risk of no longer being a true witness (which often happens in the analysis of psychotic patients).

1987, Salomon Resnik, The Theatre of Dream, page 9:

He called in an oneiromancer who explained that the dream signified the birth of a daughter.

2000, Tae-sŏk Sŏ, Peter H. Lee, Myths of Korea, page 198:

2002, John Joseph Collins, Peter W. Flint (editors), Cameron VanEpps (assistant), The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception, Volume 1, page 41,
Although a Neo-Assyrian prayer to the sun-god speaks of the oneiromancer (šā^>ilu) explaining a dream to the king,¹⁰ there is no mention of oneiromancers among the court sages, nor does any of their letters deal with the interpretation of royal dreams.