You guys know about 微笑む, but do you know about 微睡む?

I've come to enjoy using the word 微睡む lol. 微笑む(ほほえむ) and 微睡む(まどろむ) have a very easy to understand construction when you look at the kanji.

For 微笑む, it just means to smile, but if you look at the two individual kanji 微 and 笑, you see that they mean "delicate/minuteness" and "laugh" repesectively. Put those bad boys together and BOOM, you get smile (or the delicate laugh). You tend to see 微 in other words like 微生物(microbe) or 微細(micro, minute) so you instantly know that when you see a word like 微笑む( or 微睡む), you know it's going to be somewhat related to something small/minute.
For 微睡む, just do they same thing and BOOM, you get to doze off(or the delicate sleep).

I don't think I've heard or seen the word 微睡む used, spoken or written, outside of my kanken study materials lmao. I would imagine it's probably because there are a few other ways to express "dozing off" or "taking a nap" like:

転た寝する(うたたね)- doze, nap, snooze

ごろ寝する(ごろね)- falling asleep (in one's clothes), lying down to nap, crashing out

昼寝する(ひるね)- nap (afternoon), siesta

仮眠する•仮眠を取る(かみん)- nap, doze, to catch some Z's
Etc!

Now you can throw 微睡む right in there with the other ones making the list a little bit longer haha

by Domotenno

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