subconscious

Etymology

It is formed from English sub- + conscious.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Weekley thought it was apparently coined by De Quincey.^[7] The OED compares French subconscient, recorded from 1877 or earlier, and the earlier English noun subconsciousness.^[2] Conscious is from Latin cōnscius (“knowing, aware”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Working or existing just below the level of conscious perception: 1834, in De Quincey's "Cæsars" in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart find the word earlier, in 1823, implied in the adverb subconsciously in De Quincey's writings, in the sense "not wholly conscious".^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Before the noun, English had subconsciousness, partial or imperfect consciousness, recorded from 1845 in Etymonline^[3] and in the early 19th century according to the Shorter Oxford.^[6] The adjective was also used of a person partly or imperfectly aware of something, from before 1864 in Hawthorne; this sense is now rare.^[2][6] The noun the subconscious, a part of the mind holding material not immediately available to consciousness, appears in 1878 in the Cornhill Magazine,^[2][5] and in the psychological sense of mental processes outside consciousness Etymonline dates it by 1886^[3] and Barnhart to 1890.^[4] From 1898 the adjective was used in psychology of what relates to or is controlled by the subconscious, hidden or repressed.^[2] Collins compares the noun with the preconscious and the unconscious,^[8] and Merriam-Webster with the unconscious.^[5]

Timeline

• 1823 – implied in subconsciously, in De Quincey.^[3][4]
• 1834 – adjective, existing just below the level of conscious perception, in De Quincey.^[2][5]
• 1845 – subconsciousness, partial consciousness.^[3]
• before 1864 – of a person, partly aware, in Hawthorne.^[2]
• 1878 – noun, the part of the mind below consciousness.^[2][5]
• 1898 – psychology, relating to the subconscious; repressed.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Existing or working in the mind without one's full awareness: a subconscious fear of failure.^[8][5][2]
2. (rare) Of a person, only partly aware of something.^[2][6][5]

Noun

1. the subconscious: the part of the mind whose contents and activity lie below the threshold of consciousness but influence thought and behaviour.^[8][5][2]

Word family

• subconsciously
• subconsciousness

Related words

• conscious
• preconscious
• semiconscious
• unconscious

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins