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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪkɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (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: 靈媒れいばい／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 (hu), látnok (hu)
• Indonesian: cenayang (id)
• Italian: sensitivo (it) m
• Japanese: 霊媒れいばい (ja) (れいばい, reibai)
• Macedonian: телепа́т m (telepát)
• Maori: kauwaka
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: synsk, clairvoyant

• Portuguese: sensitivo (pt)
• Russian: экстрасе́нс (ru) m (ekstrasɛ́ns), телепа́т (ru) m (telepát)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: видовњак m, јасновидац m (rare, literally "clairvoyant")

  Latin: vidovnjak (sh) m, jasnovidac (sh) m (rare, literally "clairvoyant")

• 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: 霊媒れいばい (ja) (れいばい, reibai)
• Macedonian: ме́диум m (médium)
• Norwegian: medium (no) n
• Polish: medium (pl) n
• Portuguese: sensitivo (pt), médium (pt)
• Russian: ме́диум (ru) m (médium)
• Turkish: medyum (tr)

person focused on intellectual reality (Gnosticism)

• Finnish: psyykikko (fi)
• Norwegian: psykiker m

Adjective

psychic (comparative more psychic, superlative most psychic)

1. Relating to or having the abilities of a psychic.

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

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

   • 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.

2. Relating to the psyche or mind, or to mental activity in general.
   • 1913, Abraham Brill, transl., 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 […]

   • 1979 August 25, Barbara Smith, “Black Feminists”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 6, page 4:

     Merely by comprehending this, the lack of support that black feminists have for being black feminists, white women might be able to give at least psychic and preferably practical support to black women who they know and not assume that it means the same thing for us to be feminists and lesbians as it does for them to be feminists and lesbians.

Derived terms

• allopsychic
• antipsychic
• archeopsychic
• autopsychic
• biopsychic
• ethnopsychic
• exteropsychic
• extrapsychic
• galvanopsychic
• geopsychic
• interpsychic
• intrapsychic
• metapsychic
• neopsychic
• neuropsychic
• nonpsychic
• panpsychic
• parapsychic
• polypsychic
• psychically
• psychic cost
• psychic death
• psychic driving
• psychic expenditure
• psychic income
• psychicism
• psychicist
• psychicity
• psychicly
• psychicness
• psychic numbing
• psychic photography
• psychic prayer
• psychic surgeon
• psychic surgery
• psychic vampire
• psyker
• somatopsychic
• telepsychic
• unpsychic

 

Translations

relating to the abilities of a psychic

• Belarusian: псыхі́чны (psyxíčny), душэ́ўны (be) (dušéŭny)
• Bulgarian: психичен (psihičen)
• Finnish: psyykkinen (fi)
• Hungarian: paranormális (hu), természetfeletti (hu), telepatikus (hu), látnoki (hu), okkult (hu), para- (hu), mágikus (hu), parafenomenális, paraképességgel rendelkező, médiumadottságokkal bíró
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 霊媒れいばい (ja) (れいばい, reibai)
• Macedonian: пси́хички (psíhički), ду́шевен (dúševen)
• Maori: whaiwhaiā, kauwaka
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: synsk

• 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