Word of the Day

: August 21, 2023

frisson

noun free-SOHN (the second vowel is pronounced nasally)

What It Means

Frisson refers to a brief moment of emotional excitement.

// He felt a frisson of delight as he stepped tentatively through the door to the walled garden.

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frisson in Context

“I still remember the frisson of mild excitement when a reporter entered the committee room. The members sat up, some straightened their ties, others coughed, and a new urgency was brought to the business of quizzing some hapless civil servant on whatever mundane business was before them.” — John McManus, The Irish Times, 6 July 2023

Did You Know?

A chill down one’s spine isn’t always a sensation of fear or suspense. As Daniel Marenco writes, “What is most exciting about literature is how much it surprises us and makes us fall in love. Poetry especially has this gift, the gift of provoking in us a frisson, a shiver, this capacity, like a bee, to put honey on the tip of our tongue, provoking that pleasant sensation of feeling and perceiving.” His relating of frisson and shiver is apt given that frisson comes from the French word for “shiver.” (Those familiar with shivering will note that it’s also apt that frisson traces back to ultimately to Late Latin frīgēre “to be cold” or frīgēscere “to become cold.”) A frisson can be compared to a thrill or a rush, as it refers to a brief moment of emotional excitement, as in “a frisson of surprise.”