preconsciousnessn.
/priːˈkɒnʃəsnəs/, U.S. /priˈkɑnʃəsnəs/ Chiefly Psychology.
The state or condition of being preconscious; the preconscious part of the mind.
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the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > mind below consciousness > [noun]
preconscious1913
foreconscious1915
preconsciousness1920
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > mind below consciousness > [noun] > condition of
preconsciousness1920
1920 Mind 29 380 At the centre [of consciousness] lies apperceptive consciousness..; about this extends hidden or withdrawn consciousness (Binnenbewusstsein) in two divisions, the zone of pre-consciousness, capable of apperception, and the zone of Freud's unconsciousness, incapable of apperception.
1930 W. Empson Seven Types Ambiguity viii. 302 It is grasped in the pre-consciousness of the reader by a native effort of the mind.
1959 Listener 15 Oct. 624/1 This leads us to the idea of preconsciousness. That is the area of mental life in which everything we have experienced in the past, and can still remember, is stored. If consciousness is everything of which we are aware, then preconsciousness is everything which we can remember.
1993 Guardian (Nexis) 10 Dec. (Weekend Suppl.) 85 Trains are like enormous mobile mothers, whose warmth and motion enables their 8am and 5pm commuter children to return to a state of foetal pre-consciousness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1920