Word.ws English Dictionary

pervigilium

pervigilium noun: insomnia.

Noun

pervigilium (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete, rare) Insomnia.
    • A Pervigilium is sometimes a primary Distemper, without any other evident Sickness causing it; yet so that some bear up under it, without any considerable Disorder […]1733, John Allen, Synopsis medicinæ: or, a summary view of the whole practice of physick
    • Pervigilium, or want of sleep, is a most distressing and alarming symptom in fever, and appears to be the first link of that chain which includes delirium, coma, and effusion[…]there is nothing more indicative of the severity of the disease than the inability to sleep.1843, W. L. MacGregor, Practical Observations on the Principal Diseases Affecting the Health of the European and Native Soldiers in the North-western Provinces of India, page 44

Origin of pervigilium

Borrowed from Latin pervigilium.

Questions about pervigilium

What does pervigilium mean?
Pervigilium means insomnia.
What part of speech is pervigilium?
Pervigilium is a noun.

Words near pervigilium in the dictionary

  1. pervicosides
  2. pervier
  3. perviest
  4. pervigilation
  5. pervigilations
  6. pervigilium
  7. pervilleine
  8. pervilleines
  9. pervily
  10. perviness
  11. perving

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pervigilium (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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