nympholept

N1Y4M3P3H4O1L1E1P3T1

noun

A person in a state of nympholepsy.

OriginAncient Greek νυμφόληπτος →
Scrabble 22
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounnympholept (plural nympholepts)

plural nympholepts

  1. A person in a state of nympholepsy.

    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
    1 more example

    "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

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
nymphophile

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekνυμφόληπτος“caught by nymphs, frenzied”
  2. Englishnympholept

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

More words from Ancient Greek

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

nympholept. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nympholept

MLA

“nympholept.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nympholept. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nympholept,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nympholept.

Source: nympholept on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.