Why this word is great
FRISSON — [Noun] A sudden, brief feeling of excitement or emotional thrill, often accompanied by a physical shiver. From French frisson ("shiver, thrill"), from Old French friçon, from Late Latin frigere ("to be cold"), related to frigidus ("cold")—etymology’s quiet reminder that even ecstasy has winter in its bones. Unlike "thrill" (which lingers like a held note) or "shiver" (which is merely the body’s tremor against the elements), frisson is the body’s startled recognition of the sublime. It is the gooseflesh rising at the first chord of a forgotten song, the involuntary gasp when a stranger’s hand brushes yours in a crowded room, the way a single line of poetry can split the world open for an instant—proof that we are never so alive as when we are briefly, beautifully, undone.