Did you ever stay out so late that you crashed on a friend’s couch instead of going home? Or perhaps bad weather caught you unawares on a road trip, and you had to stop somewhere for the night. These activities are examples of pernoctating. From the Latin “pernoctat-,” with “per”meaning “through” and “nyx” meaning “night,” the verb “pernoctate” is a fancy way to say “pass the night somewhere.” It comes from the days when all-night prayer vigils were a common practice, but today a student might pernoctate at the library the night before a big test.