psychicsn.
/ˈsʌɪkɪks/, U.S. /ˈsaɪkɪks/ With singular agreement.
1. = psychology n. 2a. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > [noun] > science of mind or soul
animastic1653
psychology1654
pneumatology1771
psychologicsa1822
psychicsa1832
phrenics1841
psych1895
psycho1921
a1832 J. Bentham Ess. Logic in Wks. (1843) VIII. 284/1 Somatology,..or somatics; psychology, psychognosy, or psychics—to one or other of these denominations will every branch of science, which has for its subject the field of, to us, perceptible existence.., be found referable.
1895 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Psychist, one who makes a special study of Psychics [= psychology].
1908 B. Harraden Interplay 334 The joint researches in psychics and physics.
1989 Econ. Jrnl. 99 1177 The view of organic interdependence Keynes appears to have moved to in abandoning atomism for organicism in psychics differed from the view he had adopted in A Treatise on Probability.
2. = psychical research n. at psychical adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > study of
psychical research1883
psychic research1885
psychicism1892
psychs1927
psychics1942
psionics1952
1895 I. K. Funk et al. Standard Dict. Eng. Lang. II. Psychics, psychical research.
1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair iii. i. 80 She represents a rare but fairly well-understood morbid condition—that of one individual split up into several personalities... I should have imagined it to be pretty well off the slate of serious psychical inquiry. Lucy is psychopathology, not psychics.
1977 Gramophone June 31/2 In a quite separate field, that of psychics, Percy Wilson's passing will have saddened many friends and associates.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1832