The Etymology of Nightmare
Nightmare has nothing to do with horses.βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ The "mare" comes from Old English mara β a spirit that crouches on sleeping people's chests, paralysing them and filling their minds with dread. What medicine now calls sleep paralysis, medieval people understood as a demonic attack. The mara appears across Germanic languages: Old Norse mara, German Nachtmahr, Dutch nachtmerrie. It crossed into French too, combining with caucher ("to press") to create cauchemar β "the pressing-mare." Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting The Nightmare depicted both meanings: a demon on a sleeping woman's chest and a horse peering through curtains β a visual pun on the word's real and false etymologies. The Proto-Germanic *maron may link to PIE *mer- (to die), connecting nightmare to mortal and murder.