psychic

psychic

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ψυχικός (psukhikós, “relative to the soul, spirit, mind”). Earlier referred to as "psychical"; or from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, psyche”). First appeared (as substantive) 1871 and first records 1895.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪkɪk/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪkɪk

Noun

psychic (plural psychics)

1. A person who possesses, or appears to possess, extra-sensory abilities such as precognition, clairvoyance and telepathy, or who appears to be susceptible to paranormal or supernatural influences.
2. (parapsychology) A person who supposedly contacts the dead; a medium.
3. (Gnosticism) In gnostic theologian Valentinus' triadic grouping of man the second type; a person focused on intellectual reality (the other two being hylic and pneumatic).

Translations

a person who possesses, or appears to possess, extra-sensory abilities

Bulgarian: екстрасенс m (ekstrasens), медиум (bg) (medium) Chinese: Mandarin: 靈媒／灵媒 (zh) (língméi) Finnish: psyykikko (fi) French: (please verify) voyant (fr) m German: (please verify) Mentalist (de) m, (please verify) Hellseher (de) m, Mensch mit außersinnlicher Wahrnehmung m Hungarian: parafenomén, látnok (hu) Indonesian: cenayang (id) Italian: sensitivo (it) m Japanese: 霊媒 (ja) (れいばい, reibai) Portuguese: sensitivo (pt) Russian: экстрасе́нс (ru) m (ekstrasɛ́ns), телепа́т (ru) m (telepát) Ukrainian: екстрасе́нс m (ekstraséns)

a person who contacts the dead

Czech: médium (cs) m Finnish: meedio (fi) French: médium (fr) m Hungarian: médium (hu) Italian: medium (it) m Japanese: 霊媒 (ja) (れいばい, reibai) Norwegian: medium (no) n Polish: medium (pl) n Portuguese: sensitivo (pt), médium (pt) Russian: ме́диум (ru) m (médium)

person focused on intellectual reality

Norwegian: psykiker m

Adjective

psychic (comparative more psychic, superlative most psychic)

1. Relating to or having the abilities of a psychic.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Having exhausted the sporting adventures of this terrestrial globe, he is now turning to those of the dim, dark and dubious regions of psychic research.

   You must be psychic—I was just about to say that.

   She is a psychic person—she hears messages from beyond.

2. Relating to the psyche or mind, or to mental activity in general.
   • 1913, Abraham Brill, translator, The Interpretation of Dreams, translation of original by Sigmund Freud:

     In the following pages I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state.

   • 1967, R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise:

     A pathological process called 'psychiatrosis' may well be found, by the same methods, to be a delineable entity, with somatic correlates, and psychic mechanisms […]

Derived terms

• psychic cost
• psychic expenditure
• psychic income
• psychically
• psychicness
• psyker

Translations

relating to the abilities of a psychic

Belarusian: псыхі́чны (psyxíčny), душэ́ўны (be) (dušéŭny) Bulgarian: психичен (psihičen) Finnish: psyykkinen (fi) Hungarian: paranormális, természetfeletti (hu), telepatikus, látnoki, okkult (hu), para-, mágikus (hu), parafenomenális, paraképességgel rendelkező, médiumadottságokkal bíró Japanese: (please verify) 霊媒 (ja) (れいばい, reibai) Maori: whaiwhaiā Polish: psychiczny (pl), metapsychiczny, (slang) mediumiczny, (slang) mediumistyczny Portuguese: parapsíquico, psíquico (pt) Russian: телепати́ческий (ru) (telepatíčeskij), экстрасенсо́рный (ru) (ɛxtrasɛnsórnyj) Swedish: synsk (sv) Ukrainian: психі́чний (psyxíčnyj), душе́вний (dušévnyj)

Related terms

• psychical
• psychological

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “psychic”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.