Ever get the shivers? The willies? Did someone walk over your grave? Then, dear reader, you can proudly proclaim: “I have just horripilated.” To horripilate is to experience the involuntary goosebumpy shivering of ones timbers that happens from time to time. Its rippling sequence of Rs, Ps and Ls is a delightfully onomatopoeic representation of the physical phenomenon. Etymology: from the Latin: horripilatus to bristle with hairs, horrere (to bristle) + pilus (hair).

“The crone ran her filthy fingernail along the doll’s spine. Back on his plantation, Lord Chelmsford horripilated.”