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nightmarish (adj.)

"resembling or affecting one like a nightmare," 1834, from nightmare + -ish. Related: Nightmarishly; nightmarishness.

Entries related to nightmarish

nightmare (n.)

c. 1300, "an evil female spirit afflicting men (or horses) in their sleep with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare (n.3) "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus." The meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" is recorded by 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831. Cognate with Middle Dutch nachtmare, German Nachtmahr. An Old English word for it was niht-genga.

-ish 
adjectival word-forming element, Old English -isc "of the nativity or country of," in later use "of the nature or character of," from Proto-Germanic suffix *-iska- (cognates: Old Saxon -isk, Old Frisian -sk, Old Norse -iskr, Swedish and Danish -sk, Dutch -sch, Old High German -isc, German -isch, Gothic -isks), cognate with Greek diminutive suffix -iskos. In its oldest forms with altered stem vowel (French, Welsh). The Germanic suffix was borrowed into Italian and Spanish (-esco) and French (-esque). Colloquially attached to hours to denote approximation, 1916.

The -ish in verbs (abolish, establish, finish, punish, etc.) is a mere terminal relic from the Old French present participle.

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Definitions of nightmarish

nightmarish (adj.)
extremely alarming;
Synonyms: bloodcurdling / hair-raising
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near nightmarish

nightjar

night-light

nightlong

nightly

nightmare

nightmarish

night-night

night-owl

nightshade

night-shift

nightspot

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