Pandiculating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Stretching the limbs and body in a reflexive way, often done while yawning upon waking or rising from rest
2. Extending and tensing the muscles of the arms, legs and torso in an unconscious movement, commonly accompanying a yawn
3. Flexing and lengthening the body's muscles in the involuntary stretch that often comes along with yawning after sleep

Etymology: "Pandiculating" is the present participle of "pandiculate," a verb meaning to stretch oneself, especially on waking, with the arms raised and the body arched. The root is the Latin "pandiculor," which carried the same sense of stretching oneself, and the English verb is built on its past participle "pandiculātus." The Latin verb itself appears to combine "pandere," to spread out or extend, with an intensive element, so the word's core idea is one of spreading the body wide. The reason the word has stayed a specialist term is that English already had plenty of everyday verbs for stretching, so "pandiculate" survives mainly in medical and scientific writing, where a precise name for the reflexive stretch-and-yawn of waking is useful. Its appearance in English is therefore a deliberate borrowing from Latin rather than a common word that drifted into use.

Synonyms: stretching, yawning