Nympholepsies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Fits of frenzied, unattainable longing or ecstatic obsession, historically imagined as a madness brought on by desire for nymphs or an unreachable ideal
2. States of wild, consuming passion for something beyond reach, traditionally described as being driven mad by a longing for elusive beauty
3. Episodes of ecstatic, maddening craving for an unattainable object, once thought to be inspired by the nymphs of Greek myth

Etymology: "Nympholepsies" is the plural of "nympholepsy," a noun that began as a compound of "nympho-" and "-lepsy." The second element comes from Greek "lepsis," meaning a seizing or taking hold, as in "epilepsy," a seizure. The first element, "nympho-," is a combining form of Greek "nymphē," a nymph, the minor female divinities of rivers, woods, and springs in Greek myth. The full source is the Greek adjective "numphólēptos," which meant "frenzied by the nymphs" or "seized by nymphs." In Greek belief, a person who saw a nymph, or who fell into a trance of longing for one, was thought to be possessed by her, and the state was marked by ecstatic, distracted passion. English took the idea in the form of "nympholepsy," a compound built from Greek parts rather than a word passed down from antiquity, so the modern sense of an uncontrollable obsession with something unattainable is an English development of that old notion of divine possession.