pernoctation means the action of abiding through the night at a location; (countable) an instance of this; an overnight stay. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
pernoctation is pronounced /ˌpɜːnɒkˈteɪʃn̩/.
Why “pernoctation” is a great word
PERNOCTATION — [Noun] The conscious act of remaining awake and stationary throughout the night, typically for a vigil, watch, or devotional purpose. Learned borrowing from Late Latin pernoctātiō ("act of spending the night"), from pernoctō ("to spend the night") + -tiō (action noun suffix), with pernoctō being from per- ("through, entirely") + nox ("night"). First attested in English in 1633. Unlike "vigil" (which denotes purposeful wakefulness but not necessarily the full, stationary night) or "noctambulation" (which specifies unconscious sleepwalking), pernoctation is the deliberate, rooted endurance of the dark hours at a specific post. It is the monk upright on his knees until matins, the scholar anchored by lamplight amid a sea of books, the parent in a hard chair beside a fevered child—a voluntary trespass into the territory of sleep, where attention becomes a form of dwelling.
noun
- The action of abiding through the night at a location; (countable) an instance of this; an overnight stay.“The next morning they [Mary and Joseph] return back with ſpeed toward Jeruſalem; and at night repairing to their former lodging, neither there it ſeems heard they any thing of him [Jesus] (which argues, for this time of his abſence his pernoctation in the Temple), and ſo they muſt paſs this ſecond night alſo in great deſolation.”
- The action of walking about at night, especially as a vigil or watch; (countable) an instance of this.“In 1599 Sʳ Robert Leech and Sʳ John Meades were guilty of pernoctation and breaking windows. They had been sent to prison by the Proctor.”
- A religious watch kept during normal sleeping hours, during which prayers or other ceremonies are performed; a vigil.“[I]n general the veſpers begin a little before ſunſet; the matins at four o'clock in the morning, and the liturgy or communion about nine; and when the vigil, or pernoctation, is performed, that ſervice begins after ſunſet; and there is no ſervice, in the morning following, till the communion.”