psychicadj.n.
/ˈsʌɪkɪk/, U.S. /ˈsaɪkɪk/ A. adj.† 4. Physically delicate or frail. Obsolete. rare.
1. Of, relating to, or generated by the human mind or psyche; psychological; mental. Also, of an illness or condition: psychogenic (now rare). Cf. psychical adj. 1.
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the mind > [adjective] > as opposed to physical
internal1547
psychical1642
superanimal?1663
psychological1789
psychic1845
incorporeal1887
1845 Dublin Univ. Mag. Jan. 496/1 The nightmare..may indeed be a mere phantasm or psychic image.
1873 W. Wagner tr. W. S. Teuffel Hist. Rom. Lit. I. 422 In its refined descriptions of psychic events the poem recalls Virgil's manner.
1883 Brit. Q. Rev. July 14 The varied stimuli, psychic and physical.
1896 Alienist & Neurologist 17 520 Hysteria, is a constitutional psycho-neuropathy with morbid impulsions, caprices, delusions, hallucinations, and illusions, psychic and sensory.
1902 J. Buchan Watcher by Threshold ii. 131 Among women his psychic balance was so oddly upset that he grew nervous and returned unhappy.
1910 Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. 5 68 I have successfully treated by Freud's psychoanalytic method cases of homosexuality, psychic impotence..and many other so-called perversions.
1925 J. Laird Our Minds & their Bodies ii. 32 ‘Psychic’ tumours or false pregnancies have deceived skilled observers.
1968 New Scientist 2 May 226/1 The so-called ‘psychic poisons’, capable of inducing temporary or even permanent insanity.
1974 M. Mendelson Psychoanalytic Concepts of Depression (ed. 2) vii. 254 Unlike the energy of science..psychic energy is directional.
2004 D. Birksted-Breen et al. In Pursuit of Psychic Change vi. 106 His psychic life was dominated by this phantasy which was suffused with such hatred toward his sibling..that it had led to an unconscious belief that he had actually murdered him.
2. Theology. Relating to the natural or animal soul, as distinct from the spirit. Cf. psychical adj. 2. Now chiefly historical.
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the mind > mental capacity > spirituality > [adjective] > psychical or of the lower soul or not spiritual
animala1400
sensual?1532
soulish?1555
souly1616
psychical1702
soulical1828
psychic1858
1858 J. Martineau Stud. Christianity 259 It was necessary that the Logos..should..by preoccupation have neutralized the action of the natural (or psychic) element throughout all the years of his continuance among men.
1868 W. E. Gladstone Juventus Mundi ix. 376 What St. Paul calls the flesh and the mind, the psychic and the bodily life.
1889 Bibliotheca Sacra July 399 The psychic, or animal, man, is the natural man of this present age.
1986 J. J. Buckley Female Fault & Fulfilment in Gnosticism iii. 57 Adam, both psychic and pneumatic, ironically obtained his spirit from Yaltabaoth, who seems to be soul incarnate.
3.
a. = psychical adj. 3.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [adjective]
psychical1836
psychic1871
supernormal1885
supranormal1889
paranormal1905
psionic1951
1871 Proc. Royal Soc. 20 119 (title) Psychic force and modern spiritualism.
1887 F. Johnson New Psychic Stud. i. 7 These studies are termed psychic in a modified sense; they pertain not to the ordinary operations of the mind, but to the unusual, such as thought-transference, somnambulism, mesmerism, clairvoyance, spiritualism, apparitions of the living, haunted houses, ghosts [etc.].
1895 Mrs. Besant in Daily Chron. 15 Jan. 5/5 A man..possessing some psychic gifts.
1936 Discovery June 185/1 A curious outbreak of what the African calls kupagawa na pepo, i.e., to be ‘ridden by demons’ has occurred recently in Mombasa..and other East African towns, almost in the form of a psychic epidemic.
1941 A. Huxley Grey Eminence ix. 218 He was deeply impressed by any manifestation of the siddhis, as the Indians call them, the psychic powers which may be aroused by meditation and to which the wiser mystics pay as little attention as possible.
1989 Prediction May 23/2 She's a psychic phenomenon of our time, turning out hundreds of musical compositions which she claims have been dictated to her by the spirits of Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven and others.
2006 Philos. Now Feb.–Mar. 40/3 Scientists are skeptical of parapsychology..because countless experiments to prove psychic phenomena have failed.
b. Regarded as susceptible to supernatural or paranormal influence; appearing or considered to have psychical powers, esp. of telepathy or clairvoyance.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [adjective] > susceptible to
sensitive1833
psychic1905
1905 Daily News 16 Feb. 12 The Welsh are what is termed a ‘psychic’ race—that is, their senses are very highly strung, which gives them a tendency to second sight, or clairvoyance, also clairaudience and telepathy.
1930 N. Coward Private Lives i. 18 I've got second sight over certain things. I'm almost psychic.
1977 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 28 Jan. 42/1 I don't believe in astrology, but... how can you hit me so accurately in your column? You must be psychic or something.
1984 J. Morgan Agatha Christie i. 1 Her mother, Clarissa..was capricious, enchanting, and said to be psychic.
2001 Touch Dec. 112/1 You don't have to be psychic to predict the tooth-decaying climax as even a blind man could see the ending.
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1891 H. Herman His Angel 14 The girl was a frail and delicate creature..with tiny, pointed, psychic, rosy-tipped hands.
5. Bridge. Of a bid, bidding, etc.: that deliberately misrepresents one's own hand, in order to mislead one's opponents. Also, of a bidder: that makes such a bid.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > bridge > [adjective] > system of bidding > types of bidding
pre-emptive1913
takeout1914
shut-out1916
artificial1927
rebiddable1930
strength-showing1930
one-over-one1931
psychic1932
game-forcing1933
redoubled1954
responsive1956
multi-purpose1972
multicoloured1976
multi1977
1932 D. R. Sims Psychic Bidding ii. 18 I shall attempt to outline a few types of psychic bids.
1932 D. R. Sims Psychic Bidding ii. 22 A clever psychic bidder will now employ the barricade bid of two or even three No Trumps.
1975 Times 20 Dec. 10/8 A player has made a psychic opening bid and does not hold a possible trick.
1977 Washington Post 7 Sept. e9 In the early 1930s, just after the birth of psychic bidding, many players indulged in this mania of fabricating bids.
1993 Bridge Nov. 9/2 The other pair bid to seven hearts, only to encounter a psychic Lightner double from North.
B. n.
1.
a. A person who is regarded as particularly susceptible to supernatural or paranormal influence; a medium; a clairvoyant.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > psychic force or power > one who possesses
psychic1860
telepsychic1910
psyche1976
1860 W. D. Howells Let. 14 Nov. in Sel. Lett. (1979) I. 64 We talked chiefly about psychics... I am going largely into skepticism at present.
1874 E. W. Cox What am I? II. ii. xxiii. 289 He had previously exhibited considerable power as a Psychic.
1890 Sat. Rev. 1 Nov. 507/2 Hypnotisms, mesmerisms, spiritualisms, and spiritisms, the two latter kept rigidly separate by the orthodox psychic.
1918 B. Tarkington Magnificent Ambersons xxxv. 504 Mrs. Horner spoke of herself as a ‘psychic’; but otherwise she seemed oddly unpretentious and matter-of-fact.
1969 Observer 23 Mar. (Colour Suppl.) 23/2 ‘Sir,’ I said. ‘If I was a psychic I wouldn't be doing this job.’
1989 Times 24 May 23/1 In Los Angeles these days the fashionable name to drop is not that of your therapist but of your psychic. The future tellers are having a boom.
2005 New Yorker 3 Jan. 33/3 Madame Cleo will be appointed head of airport security; she will train a cadre of psychics to scan the minds of boarding passengers, looking for terrorists.
b. With the. The realm or sphere of psychical phenomena.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun]
supernormal1885
psychic1909
paranormal1930
psi1942
1909 Daily Chron. 6 Sept. 3/3 Her craze for the ‘psychic’..oils the wheels of the plot.
1920 W. McDougall Group Mind 14 Maciver is under the influence of that unfortunate and still prevalent way of thinking of the psychic as identical with the conscious.
1960 R. F. C. Hull tr. C. G. Jung Nature of Psyche in Coll. Wks. (1969) VIII. 181 It appears the psychic is an emancipation of function from its instinctual form and so from the compulsiveness which..causes it to harden into a mechanism.
1993 B. Jakim tr. S. L. Frank Man's Soul iii. 103 The doctrine of the nonextensionality of the psychic is constantly affirmed also by those who include spatial images in the makeup of psychic life.
2. Church History.
a. depreciative. A Christian regarded by the Montanists as less spiritual than themselves (see quot. 1874).
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1874 J. H. Blunt Dict. Sects 451/2 Psychics, a party name given to the orthodox by the Tertullianists, who called themselves ‘Spirituals’... The distinction was drawn from St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, where he writes of the ψυχικός..and the πνευματικός.
1921 Harvard Theol. Rev. 14 366 Tertullian extends his condemnation to every other bishop who follows the example of the bishop of Rome, as well as to all ‘psychics’ who are of the same mind.
1996 V. Grimm From Feasting to Fasting 135 Still the Psychics heap abuse on the Pneumatics for their xerophagies.
b. A person believed to live at a spiritual level intermediate between that of the fully worldly and fully spiritual. In Gnostic theology often contrasted with hylic and pneumatic.
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1894 G. R. S. Mead in Lucifer Nov. 190 The early Christian mystics, the so-called Gnostics, classified mankind into the Hylics, Psychics and Pneumatics.
1896 Jewish Q. Rev. 9 112 Only those who are under the protection of the Spirit of God can easily behold the bodily nature of demons. Other men, namely the psychics (psuchikoi), cannot see them.
1961 Numen 11 16 The notion of the three classes of men, viz. pneumatics, psychics and hylics, is fully dealt with.
2003 E. J. Hunt Christianity in Second Cent. ii. 44 Pagels identifies two different soteriological processes for ‘pneumatics’ and ‘psychics’; the ‘pneumatic’, being elected, is saved through faith and grace, whilst the ‘psychic’ is saved by faith and works.
3. Bridge. A psychic bid.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > bridge > [noun] > actions or tactics > call > bidding > bid > other types of bid
ask1872
overcall1890
rescue bid1912
game-goer1913
reverse bid1915
denial1916
rebid1916
overbid?1917
rescue?1917
under-call1923
jump1927
invitation1928
score-bid1928
approach1929
pre-empt1929
one-over-one1931
response1931
cue-bid1932
psychic1932
asking bid1936
reverse1936
shut-out1936
under-bid1945
controlled psychic1959
relay bid1959
raise1964
psych1965
multi1972
splinter bid1977
1932 D. R. Sims Psychic Bidding i. 15 The strategical bids which, under the name of ‘psychics’, are being extensively misused.
1936 Punch 2 Dec. 639/3 Unless North's last bid was a pure psychic, he should certainly hold the King of Spades himself.
1986 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 24 Apr. c14/1 Nobody objects to unsuccessful psychics, but that is equivalent to giving your money away.
Compounds
psychic blindness n. Medicine visual agnosia (= mind-blindness n. 2); (also) psychogenic blindness (rare).
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the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > impairment of mental powers > impairment of perception
rivalry1844
psychic blindness1886
agnosia1897
anhedonia1897
astereognosis1900
simultanagnosia1936
prosopagnosia1950
1886 Science 30 Apr. 385/1 If the apperceptive centre of one hemisphere is involved, then homonymous hemianopsia of the opposite half of the visual field occurs, and there is psychic blindness in one-half of the brain.
1913 Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. 8 49 Two days later she described a real attack of psychic blindness or hysterical amaurosis.
1953 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 66 155 The major areas of research for which Klüver is noted: equivalence reactions in visual discrimination, ‘psychic blindness’ following temporal lesions, [etc.].
1993 Jrnl. Child Neurol. 8 313 The Kluver-Bucy syndrome is characterized by psychic blindness or visual agnosia, [etc.].
psychic determinism n. (in psychoanalytic theory) the view that all psychological phenomena have a definite (often unconscious) cause rather than occurring by chance or accident.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > mental action or process > psychology of mental action > [noun] > theory of deterministic action
psychical determinism1876
psychic determinism1911
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > states of consciousness > unconscious as psychological influence > [noun] > psychic determinism
psychical determinism1876
psychic determinism1911
1911 Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. 6 207 The principle of psychic determinism is thus made a rigid criterion throughout the method of psychoanalysis.
1955 Internat. Jrnl. Psycho-anal. 36 355 Although the concept of psychic determinism is generally accepted without qualification as an aspect of scientific causality, it sometimes appears difficult to reconcile it with the feeling of free will.
2003 R. May in R. B. Ewen Introd. Theories of Personality (ed. 6) xi. 242 Freud stressed psychic determinism in order to shatter the Victorian misconception that personality is wholly free of childhood influences and irrationalities.
psychic energizer n. Medicine a psychostimulant or antidepressant.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > medicine for mental conditions > [noun] > antidepressant
psychic energizer1957
thymoleptic1959
psychostimulant1961
mood elevator1968
SSRI1991
1957 N. S. Kline in Congr. Rep. 2nd World Congr. Psychiatry i. 212 Psychic Energisers. We have found that iproniazid (Marsilid) may represent a new principle of drug action since it is capable of increasing psychic energy.
1974 S. Arieti Amer. Handbk. Psychiatry I. iii. 67/1 Regardless of national boundaries, great rapidity has characterized the use of these new drugs, be these ‘tranquilizers’..or ‘psychic energizers’.
2000 Social Probl. 47 571 Prozac was increasingly depicted as a medication that was a psychic energizer and that could make people feel..‘better than well’.
psychic force n. paranormal or supernatural energy, power, or influence; an instance of this.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > psychic force or power
psychic force1871
psi1942
wild talent1944
1871 W. Crookes in Q. Jrnl. Sci. July 17 Respecting the cause of these phenomena, the nature of the force to which..I have ventured to give the name of Psychic [etc.].]
1871 W. Crookes in Q. Jrnl. Sci. 1 339 Experiments appear conclusively to establish the existence of a new force, in some unknown manner connected with the human organisation, which for convenience may be called the Psychic Force.
1900 tr. Flammarion's Unknown vi. 228 We are compelled to admit the existence of an unknown psychic force, emanating from the human being, and capable of making itself felt at great distances.
1908 W. Crookes Let. to Editor (O.E.D. Archive) It is not improbable that Sergeant Cox might have suggested the term psychic force to me in conversation before June 1871.
1975 P. G. Winslow Death of Angel i. 54 Psychic force will be greater than the H-bomb.
2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 84/2 The mysterious psychic force that allegedly causes objects to move supernaturally, without physical intervention.
psychic income n. Economics the non-monetary or non-material satisfactions that accompany an occupation or economic activity.
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society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > [noun] > personal income or acquired wealth > types of generally
fixed income1858
spending income1862
middle income1889
unearned income1889
psychic income1904
disregard1940
disposable income1948
1904 F. A. Feller Princ. Econ. xlii. 402 It is well to recall also the distinction between wealth income, money income, and psychic income... The money expression of psychic income can be only approximately attained.
1975 New Society 3 July 3/2 Views of metal rooftops have been replaced by grass and flowers or attractive paving, giving office workers an inflation-proof bonus in what economists call psychic income.
2003 M. Jochimsen in D. K. Barker & E. Kuiper Toward Feminist Philos. Econ. xv. 234 Care receivers (as well as society) can assume that committed caring takes place even if no psychic income is to be expected in either the short, medium or long term.
psychic numbing n. Psychology a psychological response to traumatic events, characterized by decreased responsiveness to and a feeling of detachment from the external environment and a reduction in the ability to acknowledge and express emotion.
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1968 R. J. Lifton Death in Life 86 Conditions like the ‘vacuum state’ or ‘thousand-mile stare’ may be thought of as apathy, but are also profound expressions of despair: a form of severe and prolonged psychic numbing in which the survivor's responses to his environment are reduced to a minimum.
2004 Diogenes (Nexis) 22 Sept. Psychic numbing occurs immediately as a massive organismic defense against the experience of overwhelming pain.
psychic research n. = psychical research n. at psychical adj. Compounds.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > study of
psychical research1883
psychic research1885
psychicism1892
psychs1927
psychics1942
psionics1952
1885 Trenton (New Jersey) Times 13 Jan. A society has been formed in England to prosecute these studies under the title of the Society for Psychic Research.
1968 S. Hynes Edwardian Turn of Mind v. 145 His spectrum of interests—biology, psychic research, and socialism—make him an Edwardian radical in spirit.
1993 Gnosis Winter 64/2 Taboo areas of nonconsensus reality, including psychic research, mysticism,..terror, madness, and criminality.
psychic researcher n. = psychical researcher n. at psychical adj. Compounds.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > study of > one who studies
psychicist1876
psychist1884
psychical researcher1885
psychic researcher1891
1891 Lima (Ohio) Daily Times 10 Aug. 7/4 This last is prominent in psychic researchers and vision seers.
1939 ‘N. Blake’ Smiler with Knife iii. 54 He'll write up the Yarnold Cross ghost, and that'll bring a horde of sightseers and psychic researchers up to the farm.
1995 Empire Nov. 63/2 He plays a cynical psychic researcher called in to investigate a supposed haunting.
psychic surgeon n. a person who performs psychic surgery.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > alleged surgery by psychic means only > one who
psychic surgeon1975
the world > health and disease > healing > healer > alternative practitioner > [noun] > using mind power
mind-curer1856
mental healer1885
suggestionist1896
mind-healer1905
psychotherapeutist1905
psychic surgeon1975
1975 W. Uphoff & M. Uphoff New Psychic Frontiers iii. 165 (caption) [He] witnessed eleven and filmed ten ‘psychic surgeons’ in the Philippines.
1993 S. Gray Gray's Anat. (1994) 59 I have a friend in Idaho who had a breast tumor removed by this Filipino psychic surgeon.
psychic surgery n. a supposed healing procedure performed by psychic or paranormal means, which typically involves an apparent incision or the appearance of blood or removed diseased tissue outside the body, though no visible scar is left.
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the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > alleged surgery by psychic means only
psychic surgery1975
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > surgery > [noun] > types of surgery generally
plastic surgery1837
self-surgery1863
oral surgery1866
electrosurgery1870
Listerism1880
morioplasty1880
brain surgery1881
tachytomy1898
neurosurgery1904
radiosurgery1929
psychosurgery1936
microsurgery1959
microsurgery1960
cryosurgery1962
day surgery1968
work1968
biosurgery1969
psychic surgery1975
telesurgery1976
1975 D. R. Milner & T. Smart Loom of Creation iv. 250 The greatest problem I have experienced in describing and substantiating psychic surgery is that previously most authors have reported something akin to conventional surgery in hospitals.
1995 Fortean Times June–July 61/1 The ‘wondrous events’ in question here are mainly parapsychological in nature, ranging through EP, PK, apparitions, near-death experiences, firewalking, psychic surgery and spirit-healing.
psychic unity n. an underlying similarity between the mental states and processes of all human beings.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > [noun] > supposed universality of mind
psychical unity1863
psychic unity1893
1893 D. J. Hill Genetic Philos. x. 372 The elemental concomitance of the psychic and the physical in being known to us, indicates the existence of a psychic unity above our own which may be called cosmic.
1937 R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnol. Theory (1938) xiv. 262 The signs of Queenslanders and Sioux lend little support to psychic unity.
2001 J. Adamopoulos & W. J. Lonner in D. Matsumoto Handbk. Culture & Psychol. ii. 23 Psychic unity in such a context is to be discovered in the tightly controlled and rigid experimental designs (and minds, according to some critics) of Western (especially North American) psychology.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.1845