FINORSS

Word of the Week: 

A feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play).  The word's "alphagram" (letters arranged in alphabetical order) will always be given first, for those readers who may wish to try to anagram the word before learning more about it.

FINORSS

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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(answer below, after a little more spoiler space....)

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This week's word is...

FRISSON n. pl. -S

• Definition: a brief shudder of excitement or terror; a thrill; "a pleasurable sensation of fright or gloom" (MW)

• Front hooks: (none) 
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

• Deriving from the French for "shiver" (probably ultimately from the Latin frigere, "to be cold"), frisson can be a delightful word in the hands of a good storyteller.  Louise Erdrich used it well in Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001): "They were eager to get to the exciting part of the fight where they lost their tempers and approached each other with a frisson of rage that turned sexual, so that they could be slightly cruel and then surrender themselves to tenderness."  And T.C. Boyle crafted an unforgettable sentence with it in Budding Prospects (1984): "There were risks, sure, but that was what made the project so enticing -- the frisson, the audacity, the monumental pissing in the face of society."