Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A moment of intense excitement; a shudder.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A sudden
surge ofexcitement . - noun A
shiver .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an almost pleasurable sensation of fright
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I think you can have male friends but the frisson is always there.
Friends With a Woman ? Newmania 2007
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But what gives the novel its considerable frisson is the intrusion of Peter's impossibly seductive, much younger brother-in-law.
Michael Cunningham's "By Nightfall," reviewed by Ron Charles Ron Charles 2010
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It's the casual conversation of people who know one another well, charged with the certain frisson of two men who have lately spent more time in one another's company than they would normally wish.
Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan: 'We're not the big buddies people think we are' Laura Barton 2010
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And I bet the death sentence can give a certain frisson to thrill-seeking girls.
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But what gives the novel its considerable frisson is the intrusion of Peter's impossibly seductive, much younger brother-in-law.
Michael Cunningham's "By Nightfall," reviewed by Ron Charles Ron Charles 2010
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Not knowing what to expect when you put on a new album delivers a certain frisson, but I think we can all recall times when the final result was a bit of a disappointment.
Keith Urban. In a Turban « We Don't Count Your Own Visits To Your Blog 2006
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My only guess is that maybe the type of quasi-anonymous, quasi-engaged interaction enabled by remote video chat actually hits a psychological sweet spot of sorts: It’s intimate or proximate enough that you get the kind of visceral frisson from a hostile exchange, that fight-or-flight adrenal rush, that isn’t going to emerge in some Usenet debate on the relative merits of Windows, Linux, and OSX, however hairy the “holy war” gets.
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I've been thinking about the tears of joy, that feeling of choking up, the chill up the back of the neck (called a frisson, by some,) of sympathy and empathy for a few decades.
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I've been thinking about the tears of joy, that feeling of choking up, the chill up the back of the neck -- (called a frisson, by some) -- of sympathy and empathy for a few decades.
Rob Kall: What Makes You Cry... Besides the Obama Inauguration? 2009
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I've been thinking about the tears of joy, that feeling of choking up, the chill up the back of the neck (called a frisson, by some,) of sympathy and empathy for a few decades.
Printing: What Makes You Cry-- Besides the Obama Inauguration? 2009
chained_bear commented on the word frisson
An emotional thrill. My favorite usage is "a frisson of horror," but others include:
1777 Horace Walpole, Letters, 8 Oct. (1904) X. 130: "I tore open the sacred box with...little reverence... No holy frisson, no involuntary tear warned me."
1920 "Public Opinion" 24 Sept. 290/1: "There had been a frisson of horror because the enemy was over the Marne."
February 23, 2007
reesetee commented on the word frisson
I don't know...this word always sounds too much like frizzle for me to take it very seriously.
November 17, 2007
iarwain commented on the word frisson
Sounds like something you want to get.
May 15, 2009