Word of the Day

: May 7, 2009

oneiric

adjective oh-NYE-rik

What It Means

: of or relating to dreams : dreamy

oneiric in Context

"Héberlé gives the film a wonderfully dreamlike patina, combining bright pastels and hard primary colors that mesh quite nicely with the directors' vaguely oneiric staging." (George Robinson, The New York Jewish Week, March 21, 2008)

Did You Know?

The notion of using the Greek noun "oneiros" (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective "oneiric" wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few "oneiros" spin-offs, giving English "oneirocriticism," "oneirocritical," and "oneirocritic" (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation). The surge in "oneiros" derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus.