Dictionary

nympholept en · NOUN

Etymology

From Ancient Greek νυμφόληπτος (numphólēptos, “caught by nymphs, frenzied”), from νύμφη (númphē) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

Meanings

1. A person in a state of nympholepsy.
   • "I don't mind young nympholepts, but I draw the line at a paint-raddled old bitch of - " He had not noticed Rita, hidden in the big leather chair with its back to him, but as she moved to look round at him, he arrested his whisky at the moment of tossing it off to say "Oh, sorry, Grimsby, I didn't know you had a visitor." 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 87:
   • Dark faery, / Modern, unissued, instinctive America, / Your nascent faery people / Lurking among the deeps of your industrial thicket, / Allure me till I am beside myself, / A nympholept. 1922, D.H. Lawrence, The Evening Land:

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