Push the snooze button and get ready for a special “awakening” with today’s Wacky Word Wednesday, a weekly celebration of the wackiest and most interesting words from around the world!
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expergefaction[eks-per-ji-fak-shuhn]-noun Waking up or an awakening. |
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Expergefaction is derived from the Latin word expergisci, “to become awake.” For some of us who aren’t morning people, expergefaction can be dreadful and it’s certainly not the best part of the day. The feeling of expergefaction might be even worse if you’re awoken too early or from a really, really good dream. But expergefaction can also refer to an awakening or the state of being conscious. A person is said to have experienced expergefaction upon awakening and becoming conscious to the world.
Expergefaction can also be used to describe anything that wakes you up from your slumber, for example an alarm clock, a loud noise or a bad dream. Another form of the word, expergefactor, was used in this sense in The Mechanic’s Magazine of 1823: “The newly invented hydraulic expergefactor rings a bell at the time when a person wishes to rise.”
In Christianity, the term Great Awakening is used to refer to several periods of religious revival in American history. In Buddhism, the Sanskrit word for “awakening” is bodhi, which is the state of enlightenment attained by those who have practiced the Eightfold Path and achieved salvation. But in general, the word awakening can also refer to an epiphany, a scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries. Psychologists and other scholars have studied epiphanies in order to better understand the process of innovation.
Finally, here are two examples of expergefaction used in a sentence:
- Coffee: The morning drink of choice for those who still require a second expergefactor after crawling out of bed, allowing them to feel as if they have truly experienced a proper expergefaction. (The Wordict)
- Expergefaction is not one of my stronger skills, and often requires coffee. (Musings of an editress)
- Eight forty-five A.M., and I am about to perform expergefaction upon your mother! (The Superior Person’s Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words)
Have you had an epiphany lately? Feel free to share it below!
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