horripilation
Americannoun
noun
-
a technical name for goose flesh
-
the erection of any short bodily hairs
Usage
What does horripilation mean? Horripilation is a technical term for what happens when your hair stands up, such as when you’re cold, scared, or excited.We popularly call this goose bumps (or goose pimples, gooseflesh, or goose skin). Other technical names for it are piloerection and cutis anserina.Horripilation doesn’t only happen in humans. When some animals get startled or threatened, their fur raises in response. (When the fur becomes raised in this way on the neck, such as on a dog or cat, we say they’ve raised their hackles.)The same thing happens in humans, and is usually most noticeable in places where we don’t have much hair or the hair is very fine, such as the arms and neck.The verb horripilate means to trigger horripilation—to give someone goose bumps, as in Horror movies have the power to horripilate the viewer. It can also mean to experience horripilation—to get goose bumps.Example: A well-known example of horripilation in animals is the raising of a porcupine’s quills.
Etymology
Origin of horripilation
First recorded in 1650–60; from Late Latin horripilātiōn- (stem of horripilātiō ); horripilate, -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I can’t have been the only person who spent the evening in a pretty much constant state of horripilation.
From New York Times
Call it serendipity or synchronicity, issue your panegyrics, soak up the horripilation and admire the pulchritudinous: This was meant to be.
From Washington Post
Some of the sufferers have an external horripilation, transient shiverings are felt in the front and hind quarters and at the junction of the limbs with the trunk.
From Project Gutenberg
But, suddenly, through all the horripilation there seemed to shine a light.
From Project Gutenberg
The whole company were in a state of horripilation.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
