somnambulist
1
9.9
- noun
- /sɑːmˈnæmbjʊlɪst/
- Specialized
:
somnámbulo
- The therapist explained that a somnambulist could pose safety risks if not monitored carefully.
Examples
-
At last, she pushed herself up from the chair and walked from the room with the slow, steady gait of a somnambulist.
Fiction book (1996) -
Are any of you somnambulists?
-
Our somnambulist and her husband are in incomparable danger.
-
She began to walk toward the cloisters, moving like a somnambulist.
Fiction book (1996) -
A somnambulist, I rose from these dreams and numbly paced off my attacks of nerves.
Fiction book (1996) -
Sunday, he passed in a daze, ticking off Bethesda's list of chores with the plodding inattention of a somnambulist.
Fiction book (1994) -
Last night, I saw my brother walking through the house like a somnambulist.
-
During the sleep study, they monitored the somnambulist to ensure he didn't hurt himself.
Synonyms
11
3.5
A person who walks while not awake and does not remember it
A person who walks while asleep
Surface Forms
Morphology
somnambulist = somnambulism (opaque) = somn + ambul + ist
Formed by adding the agentive suffix '-ist' to the rare noun 'somnambulism', but the Latin combining forms 'somn-' and 'ambul-' are not recognizable to average learners.
Etymology
The word somnambulist comes from two Latin parts: somnus 'sleep' and ambulare 'to walk'. You can also see the same ambul- in the word amble 'to walk slowly'. So a somnambulist is a 'sleep-walker', a person who walks while asleep.