psyche
pronunciation
How to pronounce psyche in British English:
UK [ˈsaɪki]
How to pronounce psyche in American English:
US [ˈsaɪki]
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- Noun:
- that which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason
- the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life
Word Origin
- psyche
- psyche: [17] Like Latin animus (source of English animal), Greek psūkhé started out meaning ‘breath’ and developed semantically to ‘soul, spirit’. English adopted it via Latin psychē in the mid-17th century, but it did not really begin to come into its own until the middle of the 19th century, when the development of the sciences of the mind saw it pressed into service in such compound forms as psychology (first recorded in 1693, but not widely used until the 1830s) and psychiatry (first recorded in 1846), which etymologically means ‘healing of the mind’.=> psychiatry, psychology
- psyche (n.)
- 1640s, "animating spirit," from Latin psyche, from Greek psykhe "the soul, mind, spirit; breath; life, one's life, the invisible animating principle or entity which occupies and directs the physical body; understanding" (personified as Psykhe, the beloved of Eros), akin to psykhein "to blow, cool," from PIE root *bhes- "to blow, to breathe" (source also of Sanskrit bhas-), "Probably imitative" [Watkins]. Also in ancient Greek, "departed soul, spirit, ghost," and often represented symbolically as a butterfly or moth. The word had extensive sense development in Platonic philosophy and Jewish-influenced theological writing of St. Paul (compare spirit (n.)). Meaning "human soul" is from 1650s. In English, psychological sense "mind," is attested by 1910.
Example
- 1. Or maybe something more ominous is affecting the aristocratic psyche .
- 2. I plan to present some other ways of using dialogue to reach those previously inaccessible places in our psyche .
- 3. Researchers recorded their brain activity and found that empathy is as deeply rooted in the human psyche as fear and anger .
- 4. Even the greatest empires hurt when they lose wars . It is not surprising then that iraq weighs so heavily on the american psyche .
- 5. Lerner thought this behavior might be an attempt to protect the psyche of people facing an abysmal , unrelenting amount of misery and despair .