Crossword clues for frisson
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"emotional thrill," 1777 (Walpole), from French frisson "fever, illness; shiver, thrill" (12c.), from Latin frigere "to be cold" (see frigid). Scant record of the word in English between Walpole's use and 1888.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A sudden surge of excitement. 2 A shiver, a thrill.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Frisson (French for 'shiver') is a sensation somewhat like shivering, usually caused by stimuli. It is typically expressed as an overwhelming emotional response combined with piloerection (goosebumps). Stimuli that produce a response are specific to the individual.
Frisson is of short duration, usually no more than 4–5 seconds, usually pleasurable. Typical stimuli include loud passages of music and passages that violate some level of musical expectation.
It has been shown that during frisson, the skin of the lower back flexes, and shivers rise upward and inward from the shoulders, up the neck, and may extend to the cheeks and scalp. The face may become flush, hair follicles experience piloerection. This frequently occurs in a series of 'waves' moving up the back in rapid succession. The frissoner usually feels the experience as involuntary.
It has been shown that some experiencing musical frisson report reduced excitement when under administration of naloxone (an opioid receptor antagonist), suggesting musical frisson gives rise to endogenous opioid peptides similar to other pleasurable experiences. Frisson may be enhanced by the amplitude of the music and the temperature of the environment. Cool listening rooms and movie theaters may enhance the experience.
Usage examples of "frisson".
Trouble let the familiar talk wash over her, letting herself adjust to the aftershocks, the occasional frisson of unrelated sensation as the swollen scalp around the new implant triggered a reaction.
The noise of the crowds on the roads mingled with the cannonading and Brady felt a frisson of fear.
His scent, his nearness, his light touch, all surged frissons of heat to every secret place.
She could not explain why little frissons of ice were jangling her nerves.
The Copelands were encamped upon the grounds of such events, experiencing frissons no television or movie screen could ever provide.
An unexpected frisson of pleasure rippled through her at the feel of his butt, cool and smooth, hard with muscle, lush connoisseurs would envy her the moment, and she wished she had the nerve to linger, to fully appreciate this male perfection.
In any event: cannons were discharged picturesquely from the ramparts of “Maestricht,” and “Dutchmen” struck defiant poses on the battlements, creating among the spectators a frisson of righteous anger (how dare those insolent Dutchmen defend themselves!
It's just that the spectacles had declined toHackworth his own bungee cord, just to add an extra frisson towhole experience.
Canada had much more of a mirror-world thing going on, when I first came here, the finest frissons of cognitive dissonance being provided, for your American boy, by trade with the USSR and China.
A little prototypic nerd chic could actually lend a certain frisson, around here.
Frissons of warmth rippled through her, setting off slow fires in the secret places of her body.
I looked at Rebecca and went, in the snottiest voice I could, “Besides, if I supposedly like Jack so much, what’s with this frisson thing you said you sensed between me and David?
They hadn't had the stomach - or the footwear - for battling through the undergrowth to find the old mine workings, but their adolescent tumblings in the woodland behind the manor house had held an extra frisson for her because of the very notoriety of the spot.