What does" give me the chills" mean?

[sky753]

Hello Everyone,

From Yahoo Online ,Recently,Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist have discovered that salt water can burn. In the report there is a sentence.
"This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills." From the sentence, we can see that Roy was very excited when he saw the phenomenon. My question here is why the author use "give me the chills" . Chill is defined as "1. a feeling of coldness. 2.a sudden feeling of fear or worry, especially because of something cruel or violent" in longman. According to the definition, when something bad happens,one will have a feeling of chill. Does the phase "give me the chills" mean " give me an unexpected excitement?

And another question what is the full name of Penn?

Regards

Sky

 

[Soup]

1. Pennsylvania Welcome to Penn State's Home on the Web



2. Chill is synonymous with frisson, a moment of intense excitement, a sudden, passing sensation of excitement; a shudder of emotion; thrill:

WordNet​

chill (noun) an almost pleasurable sensation of fright; "a [chill] of surprise shot through him" [syn: frisson]​

Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water

 

[BobK]

:up: And the odd-looking plural is an informal indication of a physical condition. I haven't met "the chills" before, but it is obviously an analogue of phrases such as 'gave me the willies' (a feeling of unease), 'had the shakes', 'had the screaming 'ab-dabs' - very informal (perhaps this one is a feature of my own dialect and that of people close to me).

b

 

[sky753]

1. Pennsylvania Welcome to Penn State's Home on the Web




2. Chill is synonymous with frisson, a moment of intense excitement, a sudden, passing sensation of excitement; a shudder of emotion; thrill:

WordNet​

chill (noun) an almost pleasurable sensation of fright; "a [chill] of surprise shot through him" [syn: frisson]​

Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water

Thanks a lot for your help! :up: :up: :up:

I would like to know here how often chill under such meaning is used in spoken English ?

Regards

Sky

 

[clever monkey]

It means you get a primeval shiver down your spine when you suddenly realise that something major is up.........like,something as simple as salt water could threaten the very exsistance of man or being alone at home then feeling like your not alone coz there`s a ghost there with you ........brrrrrr "gave me the chills" or things like world ending things like the nuclear bomb or a suname or a comet or even also when you think about getting sick and dieing from cancer .......that`s what the phrase means to most people imo!