Hibernation is the deep winter-long sleep of some animals. Go into hibernation, come out of hibernation, hibernation season.
True hibernation involves a large drop in body temperature and heart rate — a hedgehog's heartbeat falls from about a hundred and ninety to twenty. Bears do something different and lighter, which specialists call torpor. Waking early is dangerous because it burns reserves that must last months. Figuratively, hibernation means a period of withdrawal: the project went into hibernation. Note hibernate, and that computers use the word for a low-power state.
1nounhibernationThe deep winter-long sleep of some animals.
“In autumn, the hedgehog eats as much as it can before going into hibernation.”
hibernation is a winter dormancy.
Latin hibernare means to spend the winter, from hiems, winter — the same root as the Himalayas, which means the abode of snow. Hibernation is simply wintering, given a Latin name.
Latin
hībernātus
English, today
hibernation
Built from
From Latin hībernātus, from hībernō, from hībernus (“wintry, of or pertaining to winter”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA