expergefaction means an awakening. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “expergefaction” is a great word
The precise process or state of being roused from sleep. From Latin *expergefactiōn-em*, from *expergefaciō* ("to awaken, rouse"), itself from *ex-* ("out, thoroughly") and *pergere* ("to carry on") or related to *expergīscī* ("to awake"), entering English in 1639. Unlike "arousal," which implies a diffuse stimulation, or the common "awakening," which carries broad spiritual or metaphorical weight, expergefaction is the specific, often reluctant mechanics of transition. It is the cold shock of a hand on a shoulder in a darkened room, the scent of coffee that acts not as pleasure but as a command, and the grainy pressure of eyelids being forced to admit the day—the minor trauma of being returned to the world.
Etymology
From Latin expergefactiō, from expergefaciō.
noun
- An awakening.““Thouſands drink in the Love of theſe, together with their Parents milk, and are enamoured on them from their very Cradles; yet I am ſure the affectations of theſe Arts, cannot be derived from Præexiſtence; they cannot poſſibly be any new expergefactions of dormient prepenſions, or refloreſcencies of obſolete and forgotten Cuſtoms, contracted in a ſuperior life; becauſe there is nothing parallel t”