daymare

English

Etymology

Blend of day +‎ nightmare.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪˌmɛə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪˌmɛɚ/

Noun

daymare (plural daymares)

1. A vivid, unpleasant mental image, having the characteristics of a nightmare, during wakefulness.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter VIII, in David Copperfield, published 1869:

     What walks I took alone, down muddy lanes, in the bad winter weather, carrying that parlour, and Mr. and Miss Murdstone in it, everywhere: a monstrous load that I was obliged to bear, a daymare that there was no possibility of breaking in, a weight that brooded on my wits, and blunted them!

   • 2005, “Road to Zion”, in Welcome to Jamrock, performed by Damian Marley ft. Nas:

     Sometimes I can't help but feel helpless / I'm havin' daymares in daytime wide awake try to relate / This can't be happenin' like I'm in a dream while I'm walkin' / Cause what I'm seein is hauntin', human beings like ghost and zombies

Translations

noun

• Dutch: dagmerrie f

Verb

daymare (third-person singular simple present daymares, present participle daymaring, simple past and past participle daymared)

1. To have a daymare.
   • 2003, Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women’s Liberation, page 322:

     There must be something better to spend my precious time daymaring.

   • 2007, Michele Zackheim, Broken Colors, Europa Editions, →ISBN, page 41:

     She daymared through each one, painting dark, almost black canvases with indistinguishable figures floating in a stormy sky.

   • 2017, Will Self, Phone, Viking, →ISBN:

     Instead he’s daymaring the burning sandy wastes of southern Iraq – the unknowable concrete-and-mud-brick towns and forgotten bazaars where the Rams could well lose themselves … in a wilderness of dust.

Further reading

• “daymare”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.