psychopathic

Etymology

It is formed from English psycho- + -pathic, after psychopathy.^[2][3][4] Barnhart instead takes it as borrowed from German psychopathisch,^[5][6] and Etymonline as a formation from psychopathy on the model of the German word.^[7] The OED compares German psychopathisch (1845, in the book translated in its first English quotations), French psychopathique (1853) and Italian psicopatico (1855), all used of conditions affecting the brain or the mind.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats it as an international scientific formation.^[4] The elements go back to Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “mind, soul”) and πάθος (páthos, “suffering”),^[7][6] the latter from Proto-Indo-European *kʷent(h)- (“to suffer”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to conditions affecting the function of the brain or the mind, and engaged in their study or treatment: 1847, in H. E. Lloyd and B. G. Babington's translation of E. von Feuchtersleben,^[2] the book whose German original (1845) also gave English psychopathy.^[7] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also date the word to 1847.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

At first the word covered mental illness in general, a use the Shorter Oxford calls the older one;^[3][2] it narrowed as psychopathy came to mean, from 1885, a condition marked by self-seeking, antisocial, impulsive and manipulative behaviour, and the adjective now usually refers to that condition.^[2][3] The sense "engaged in the study or treatment of mental conditions" is now rare or disused,^[2] and a use for treatment by psychic means such as hypnotism, recorded from 1875, is now rare.^[2] The noun psychopath, in its modern sense from 1885, is according to Barnhart and Etymonline a back-formation from psychopathic;^[6][7] the OED records it from 1858 for a person who studied or treated mental illness.^[2] In Cockney rhyming slang psychopathic has stood for traffic (1998).^[8]

Timeline

• 1847 – relating to conditions affecting the brain or the mind; having such a condition; as a noun, a person with such a condition.^[2][6][4]
• 1875 – relating to treatment by psychic means such as hypnotism (now rare).^[2]
• c. 1890 – noun, a psychopath, in Merriam-Webster Unabridged's dating.^[4]
• 1998 – Cockney rhyming slang for traffic.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to, characterized by or affected with psychopathy: a psychopathic personality.^[4][3][2]
2. Persistently showing antisocial, impulsive and manipulative behaviour, often without remorse.^[2]
3. Relating to mental illness in general (now rare).^[3][2]

Noun

1. A psychopath.^[4][3][2]

Word family

• psychopathically
• nonpsychopathic
• unpsychopathic

Related words

• psychopath
• psychopathy
• psyche
• pathos
• psycho-
• -pathic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com