Meanings
- literaryuncountableA dreamlike semi-conscious state, such as while falling asleep or waking up, between periods of sleep, or from exhaustion; generally an altered mental state where there is no distinction between the fantastic and the familiar.
[Lancelot] has witnessed the miraculous cure of his fellow knight, but he understands nothing of what he has seen in his somnolent dorveille.
2000, Anne Marie D'Arcy, Wisdom and the Grail, page 905 more examples
The poetic voice describes how, sleepless with lovesickness, he goes to the chapel, seeking respite. As he meditates there upon the cause of his "passion", he […] enters into a state of dorveille and has a vision populated with women
2008, Emily Francomano, Wisdom and Her Lovers in Medieval and Early Modern Hispanic Literature, page 71dorveille is a peculiar psychic, physical, and spiritual condition traditionally suffered by the narrator or human protagonist of the allegorical poem. Dorveille can involve the bodily exhaustion that overcomes the narrator at the outset of his text. The classic example is Dante, who, at the opening of Inferno 1, describes himself as pien di sonno – "full of sleep" (line 11). Dorveille can also involve the hypnotic lull and dizziness that overcomes the weary horseman who, as he narrates his poem, suffers from a wandering sense of attention and alertness (French rever).
2009, James J. Paxson, The Poetics of Personification, page 94the narrator is in a dreamlike state midway between sleep and wakefulness, […] "dorveille", a state that accentuates the inability to tell whether the events being recounted really happened or not.
2010, Christine de Pizan, David Hult, Debate of the Romance of the Rose, page 106Among indigenous and early peoples, the liminal state of dorveille (sleep-wake) is a time when you might stir and share dreams with whoever is available. […] Sometimes a whole poem or song is delivered within a dream or in that fluid in-between zone of sleep-wake, dorveille.
2011, Robert Moss, Active Dreaming: Journeying Beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom, pages 21, 47When sleep was divided into a two-act play, people were creative with how they spent the intermission. They didn’t have anxious conversations with imaginary doctors; they actually did something. During this dorveille, or “wake-sleep,” people got up to pee, hung out by the fire, had sex, or prayed.
2022 January 27, Derek Thompson, “Can Medieval Sleeping Habits Fix America’s Insomnia?”, in The Atlantic
Origin
- Old Frenchdorveille
- Middle Frenchdorveille
- Englishdorveille
Borrowed from Middle French dorveille, from Old French dorveille, from dormir (“to sleep”) + veiller (“to be awake; to be alert”).
More words from Middle French, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French assoupissement
- assoupissementcreative semi-conscious state
Italian dormiveglia
- dormivegliacreative semi-conscious state
Polish czuwanie nocne
- czuwanie nocnecreative semi-conscious state
Portuguese dormevela
- dormevelacreative semi-conscious state
Spanish duermevela
- duermevelacreative semi-conscious state
Cite this entry
dorveille. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dorveille
“dorveille.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dorveille. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dorveille,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dorveille.
Source: dorveille on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.