Meanings
plural nympholepsies
- countableuncountableA frenzied state of (usually erotic) emotion, especially concerning something or someone unattainable.
If young persons of both sexes were brought together in the honest practical relations of organized labor, we should see no more of these fond nympholepsies
1852, Mary Edgewood Lazarus, Love Vs. Marriage: Part 1, page 292 - countableuncountableNymphophilia.
The science of nympholepsy is a precise science. Actual contact would do it in one second flat. An interspace of a millimeter would do it in ten.
1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter XXIX, in Lolita, volume I, page 172Synonyms: Lolita complex, Lolita syndrome, nymphophilia
Synonyms & antonyms
nounNymphophilia.
Origin
From nympho- + -lepsy, after Ancient Greek νυμφόληπτος (numphólēptos, “frenzied by the nymphs”, adjective).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
nympholepsy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nympholepsy
“nympholepsy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nympholepsy. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nympholepsy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nympholepsy.
Source: nympholepsy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.