(pronounced sahm-NAM-byuh-lent)
To remember this word, think of the more common word “insomnia,” which means sleeplessness. This adjective, obviously having the same Latin root, means walking while asleep or resembling a sleepwalker, as in being slow to move around or to respond to situations. We think the more contemporary definition would be “out of it.”
Example: The bi-weekly project meeting became uncomfortably awkward when Jack, the lead MEP engineer on the $10 million retail development project, moved beyond his unusually somnambulant state and actually fell asleep at the conference table.
