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psyche

Etymology and origin of the English word psyche

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈsaɪ.ki/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin psyche,[2][3][4][5][6] from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, spirit, breath, life”),[2][3][4][5] probably related to psukhein “to breathe, to blow”.[3][4][6] The Greek word is sometimes traced to a Proto-Indo-European root *bhes- “to breathe”,[2][4] but Etymonline notes that Beekes doubts this.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animating spirit, the soul (1647, in the OED and Barnhart).[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the word also meant the spirit of a dead person, imagined as a winged creature,[4] and in myth Psyche was the girl loved by Eros, represented with a butterfly as her symbol.[4][7][2] The human soul or spirit as distinct from the body is recorded in English from 1658,[7][4] and the psychological sense of the conscious and unconscious mind dates from 1910.[3][4][7]

Timeline

  • 1590 – Merriam-Webster's date, for the mythical princess.[5]
  • 1647 – the animating spirit or soul.[3][7]
  • 1658 – the soul as distinct from the body, the mind.[7]
  • 1838 – a cheval glass.[7]
  • 1910 – in psychology, the mind as a whole.[3][7][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The soul or spirit of a person.
  2. The mind as the centre of thought, feeling and behaviour, both conscious and unconscious.
  3. In Neoplatonism, the universal consciousness that animates the world.

Proper noun

  1. In mythology, a princess loved by Eros (Cupid), later the personification of the soul.
  • psych
  • psychic
  • psychology
  • psycho-

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Psyche.” Etymologically, 11 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/psyche. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·