51吃瓜

If you鈥檝e got your costume (check), candy (check), and spooky movies cued up for a marathon (check), you might think you鈥檙e all set for the most ominous of holidays. And what would Halloween be without a rewatch of Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, or It鈥檚 the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown鈥攄epending on your actual tolerance for thrills?

Even with all that, you may be missing a little something that can add flair to the fright-acular festivities: a set of weird and creepy words sure to make you jump a little. (Boo!)

nyctophobia

Are you afraid of the dark?

If the answer is yes, you might have nyctophobia, the abnormal fear of night or darkness. Derived from the Greek 苍媒虫聽for “night” and phobia meaning “fear,” nyctophobia is the perfect word for anyone who hides under the covers once the lights go out.

If you’d rather sleep in a coffin than a bed, you’ll feel nice and cozy with our next word.

sepulchral

Sepulchral refers to anything of or pertaining to burial.

Derived from the Latin 蝉别辫耻濒肠谤腻濒颈蝉聽meaning “to bury in the earth,” the term owes its root to the word sepulcher, a tomb or crypt for the dead. Many things can be sepulchral: the deep and hollow tone of a bell, a cold draft of wind that stands your hair on end, even the vacant eyes of the undead.

If you’ve ever seen Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, then you’ve seen our next term in action.

And if literary uncanny is your cup of tea, read up on the background behind the name Frankenstein.

berserk

When someone goes berserk, they become crazy, deranged, overtaken by a violent destructive frenzy. From chainsaw-wielding killers to bloodthirsty zombies, berserk is the perfect term to describe the villains of most scary movies.

The term originates from Old Norse, a language that evolved from ancient Viking tongues, with bjorn聽meaning “bear” and serkr meaning “shirt” or “armor.” With this etymology in mind, when someone goes berserk, it’s as though they’ve covered up their rational human behavior with the wild aspect of a bear.

thanatopsis

Do you spend a lot of time in graveyards? Did most of your friends die before you were born? If so, then you might be poised to write a fantastic thanatopsis.

Derived from the Greek聽迟丑谩苍补迟辞蝉, meaning “death,” and聽贸辫蝉颈蝉, “appearance, sight,”聽a thanatopsis is a written contemplation of death, often in the form of a poem. Poet William Cullen Bryant first popularized the style with a poem called鈥攜ou guessed it鈥�Thanatopsis.

perdition

In Christian tradition, perdition is the state of final spiritual ruin or eternal damnation to which the wicked are condemned. In other words, it’s a way scarier word for hell.

The term is derived from the Latin perdere meaning “to lose” or “to ruin.” Beware of any roads leading to聽perdition.

Hold on to your souls, our next word might scare you right out of your skin.

trepidation

When a visit from a ghost sends shivers down your spine, or when a brush with a vampire gives you goosebumps, what are you feeling? Trepidation, of course.

Trepidation refers to an experience of fear or alarm that often results in trembling or quivering. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin聽trepidus, meaning “nervous, jumpy, alarmed, anxious.” Its opposite is聽intrepidus, source of the English聽intrepid.

If you aren’t feeling trepidation yet, check out the gruesome story about the word below.

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