somnambulist

[som-nam-byuh-list, suhm-]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a person who walks around, eats, or performs other motor acts while asleep; sleepwalker.
I have slept on the march like a somnambulist, and I have slept standing up like a horse.
a person who seems to act without awareness, feeling, aim, or will.
Most people go through much of their lives as somnambulists, unaware of themselves and unquestioning of their environment.

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Other Word Forms

somnambulistic adjective
semisomnambulistic adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of somnambulist¹

First recorded in 1780–90; somn- ( def. ) + Latin ambul- ( amble ( def. ) ) + -ist ( def. )

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

It’s a perfect beginning to this kind of somnambulist theater, where the subconscious is the star, trying to make sense of everyday anxieties and concerns while life has been irrevocably changed by a global pandemic.

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The somnambulist provided an early role for Conrad Veidt, the German officer in Casablanca.

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I’m a confabulating somnambulist, a bundle of reflexes, twitches and compulsions with no self-knowledge, let alone self-control.

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But you know there the person is the somnambulist, a sleepwalker.

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If these scenes of daylight somnambulists seem dreamlike, that is consistent with the idea that there is no time in the unconscious.

From

somnambulism somni-

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