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Examples
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Their periphescence existed simultaneously with a less passionate stage of pair bonding.
Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffery 2002
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She walked to the window, leaving the periphescence behind, and the breeze from the valley cooled her down.
Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffery 2002
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The state of periphescence, however, is well known.
Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffery 2002
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In his presidential address at the annual convention of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in 1968 (held that year in Mazatlán among lots of suggestive piñatas), Dr. Luce introduced the concept of “periphescence.”
Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffery 2002
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Still, I have to insist: to Desdemona periphescence felt like a lake of warmth flooding up from her abdomen and across her chest.
Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffery 2002
mollusque commented on the word periphescence
The state of periphescence, however, is well known. It denotes the first fever of human pair bonding. It causes giddiness, elation, a tickling on the chest wall, the urge to climb a balcony on the rope of the beloved's hair. Periphescence denotes the initial drugged and happy bedtime where you sniff your lover like a scented poppy for hours running.
--Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 34
August 6, 2008