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 of excitement.
  • 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

[French, from Old French fricons, pl. of fricon, a trembling, from Vulgar Latin *frīctiō, *frīctiōn-, from Latin frīgēre, to be cold.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French frisson.

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Examples

Comments

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  • 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

  • I don't know...this word always sounds too much like frizzle for me to take it very seriously.

    November 17, 2007

  • Sounds like something you want to get.

    May 15, 2009