noun, masculine/kɔʃ.maʁ/plural: cauchemars
nightmare
“Je n'ai pas pu dormir hier soir parce que j'ai fait trop de cauchemars.” — I couldn't sleep last night because I had too many nightmares.
Antonyms: rêve
Related: cauchemardant, cauchemardement, cauchemarder, cauchemardesque
Inherited from Middle French cauchemare, from Old French cauquemare. By surface analysis, cauque + mar. Compare Walloon tchôcmwår. * First element from Old French cauche, from the verb chauchier (“to press”), from Latin calcare (“to trample, tread on”), from calx (“heel”), of uncertain origin. * Second element from Frankish *marā (“evil spirit”), from Proto-West Germanic *marā, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ (“nightmare, incubus”), from Proto-Indo-European *mor- (“malicious female spirit”), from *mer