horripilate
/hɒˈɹɪpɪˌleɪt/
horripilate means to bristle in fear or horror; to have goose bumps or goose pimples. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 92 out of 100.
horripilate is pronounced /hɒˈɹɪpɪˌleɪt/.
Why “horripilate” is a great word
HORRIPILATE — [Verb] To cause one's hair to bristle, as from fear, horror, or awe, producing goosebumps. From Late Latin horripilātus, from horripilō ("to bristle with hairs"), from Latin horrēre ("to bristle, dread") + pilus ("hair"). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- ("to bristle"). First attested in English in the 1620s. Unlike "bristle," which suggests a general stiffening often from anger, or "shudder," which describes a convulsive tremor of the whole body, to horripilate is to undergo a specific, autonomic siege. It is the prickle that lifts the hairs on your nape at a whispered warning, the sudden grain of gooseflesh on your forearm in a darkened room, the visible uprising of each follicle against a psychic cold—the body’s oldest scripture, reporting a ghost the mind has yet to register.
Etymology
From Late Latin horripilātus, perfect passive participle of horripilō (“(of hairs) to bristle”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from horreō (“to bristle, shiver, dread”) + pilus (“hair”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”).
verb
- To bristle in fear or horror; to have goose bumps or goose pimples.“Another volume of ghost stories by Mrs. [Catherine] Crowe!—as grim and horrifying as the "Night Side of Nature," which sends one to bed with a shudder, and lends an awful deliberation to the act of putting out the candle. These pages would literally be frightful if they were not at the same time fascinating. You never know at what turn in the narrative to look for the sudden bit of description, wh”