Definition: (1) Yawning or a yawn, hence (2) the drowsiness or dullness associated with yawning.

Usage: Today's word is rare but unvexed. It is the noun from the adjective oscitant "drowsy, yawning."

Suggested Usage: It might be a bit ostentatious to say that the audience responded with more oscitancy than applause, even if true, but you might defend yourself by saying, "No, no, my oscitancy comes more from lack of sleep than from lack of interest."

Etymology: Latin oscitare "yawn" from os- "mouth" and citare "to move". The stem cit- is also found in "cite" and "excite". It comes from Proto-Indo-European *kei(d)/koi(d) which gave English hest "command, bidding" as in "behest" and, with the suffix -n, the Greek root kin- in kin-ein "to move" that underlies "cinema" and "kinetic".