paranormal

Etymology

It is formed from English para- + normal,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the prefix in its sense "beyond, irregular, abnormal".^[3] para- is from Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “beside, near; contrary to”),^[3] and normal is from Late Latin normālis (“in conformity with rule”), from norma (“carpenter's square, rule”).^[3] The OED compares French paranormal, recorded from 1920.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of supposed psychical events or powers, such as clairvoyance or telekinesis, whose working lies outside the known laws of nature: 1905, in L. I. Finch's translation of J. Maxwell's Metapsychical Phenomena.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED's 1989 edition dated the word only from 1920, and its 2005 revision found the earlier record of 1905;^[7][2] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1920, and Dictionary.com to 1915–20.^[5][6] Etymonline describes the first use as referring to events presumed to follow natural laws, but not laws that are known.^[3] The noun use, the paranormal, for such phenomena as a whole and as a field of study, is recorded from 1930, in the Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology;^[2][8] the Shorter Oxford dates it, and the derivatives paranormally and paranormality, to the mid 20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1905 – adjective, of psychical phenomena.^[2][3]
• c. 1920 – first record in Merriam-Webster and in the OED of 1989.^[5][7]
• 1930 – noun, the paranormal.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Beyond the range of normal experience or of scientific explanation: paranormal powers such as telepathy.^{[9][10][5][4]}

Noun

1. the paranormal: paranormal events or phenomena as a whole, especially as a field of study: a book about the paranormal.^[10][2][4]

Word family

• paranormality
• paranormally

Related words

• normal
• abnormal
• supernormal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins