psychicus

Forms

psȳchicus (feminine psȳchica, neuter psȳchicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ψυχικός (psūkhikós),^[1][2][3] which Köbler glosses as “living, sensual, of the soul”, from ψυχή (psukhḗ, “breath, soul”).^[2] Within Latin it can be analysed as psychē with the suffix -icus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tertullian is the first to use it, in his work on monogamy, where a laxity is not to be defended because it is psychica.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It was a technical word of Christian teaching, based on the First Letter to the Corinthians: it described what has a soul and is not merely material, but lacks the spirit of God, in contrast with spīritālis “spiritual” and with choicus and hylicus “earthly, material”.^[4] In the Latin Irenaeus it is used of the Gnostic classes of men and of the demiurge, whom the Gnostics called psychicus.^[4] Tertullian, apart from one or two passages, uses it with contempt for the Catholics; as a noun, the psychicī are those from whom, he says, the recognition of the Paraclete had separated his party.^[4]

Stelten's dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin gives the sense “of the mind, psychological”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of carnal-minded Christians.^[4][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Having a soul but not the spirit; animal, natural, opposed to spiritual.^[4][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Carnal, carnally minded.^[3][5]
3. (New Latin) Of the mind, psychological.^[6]

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) In Tertullian, a Catholic Christian, as one who lacks the spirit.^[4]

Related words

• psychē
• English psychic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson