Drem

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A vision or series of images experienced during sleep ; to experience such visions while asleep, as in Scots and northern English dialect
2. An image or story that the mind produces while sleeping ; the act of having such images while one is asleep, in regional Scottish speech
3. A nighttime vision seen in sleep ; the activity of imagining things and seeing them while resting, found in Scots dialect

Etymology: "Drem" is a Scottish word meaning a dream or reverie, and its English form descends from the Gaelic word "druim", which means "back". The connection is not obvious: the Gaelic word for a ridge or spine of land is what gave the Scots language its term for a dream, and the link between a physical back and a state of the mind is the surprising part of the story. The word belongs to the Scottish vocabulary rather than standard English, and its spelling reflects Scots pronunciation. Scots drew on Gaelic over many centuries in the Highlands and Lowlands, which is why a term rooted in the Gaelic language for a body part came to name something entirely intangible.