Pandiculation!

 Pandiculation:  the act of stretching oneself, especially on waking.

Every so often I come upon a new, to me, English vocabulary word that strikes my fancy.  Pandiculation is certainly apropos after yesterday's One Poem a Day, in which I was  prompted  to scrutinize a bit of my childhood activities in comparison with an animal, I chose a  domesticated cat.  And, heaven knows, cats are masterful in their ability and success at pandiculation!

A little more on the subject of pandiculation from Eyal Lederman, Therapeutic Stretching:                                           Toward a functional approach, 2014:"There's a shared animal and human behavior of "having a stretch" ad yawning called pandiculation.  It is often a combination of elongating, shortening and stiffening of muscles throughout the body."

And, this from Leon Gilbert, "The Delights of Sneezing," in the Sidney Morning Herald, July 17, 1949:   "I had hoped to deal, here, with two other minor emotional luxuries that have been hitherto hidden in obscurity.  They are oscillation (yawning) and pandiculation (stretching) which may be practiced separately or together.

Pandiculation, "stretching (as when waking up), comes to us via French pandiculation, from the latin verb pandiculari "to stretch, grimace."  Pandiculari is a derivative of pandere "to spread out, extend."

Pandiculation entered English in the early 17th century.

One moment please . . . while I pandiculate!