psyche

See also: Psyche, Psyché, psyché, and Psýché

English

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin psychē, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sī'kē
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.ki/

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

    • Audio (Austin, Texas):

      (file)

  • (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑe.ki/
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.ki/, [ˈsɑe̯.ki]

Noun

psyche (plural psyches)

1. The human soul, mind, or spirit.
   • 2022 January 28, Em Beihold, Nick Lopez, Dru DeCaro, “Numb Little Bug”, in Egg in the Backseat‎^[1], performed by Em Beihold:

     I've been driving in L.A. / And the world, it feels too big / Like a floating ball that's bound to break / Snap my psyche like a twig

   • 2023 November 20, Rory Carroll, Lisa O'Carroll, “‘It’s part of our psyche’: why Ireland sides with ‘underdog’ Palestine”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     We feel we have been victimised over the centuries. It’s part of our psyche – underneath it all we side with the underdog.”

2. (chiefly psychology) The human mind as the central force in thought, emotion, and behavior of an individual.
3. A small white butterfly, Leptosia nina, family Pieridae, of Asia and Australasia.

Derived terms

• anthropopsychism
• psychal
• tachypsychia

Translations

the human soul, mind, or spirit

• Bulgarian: душа (bg) f (duša), психика (bg) f (psihika)
• Catalan: psique (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 精神 (zh) (jīngshén)

• Czech: psýcha (cs) f, psychika
• Esperanto: psiko (eo)
• Finnish: psyyke (fi)
• French: psyché (fr) f, psychisme (fr) m
• German: Psyche (de) f, Geist (de) m
• Greek: ψυχή (el) (psychí)
• Hungarian: psziché (hu)
• Italian: psiche (it) f
• Japanese: 精神 (ja) (せいしん, seishin)
• Kazakh: психика (psıyxıyka), жан (kk) (jan), рух (ruwx)
• Māori: mauri
• Occitan: psiquè (oc) f
• Persian: روان (fa) (ravān)
• Polish: psyche (pl) f, psychika (pl) f
• Portuguese: psique (pt) f
• Russian: душа́ (ru) f (dušá), дух (ru) m (dux), пси́хика (ru) f (psíxika)
• Spanish: psique (es) f, psiquis (es) f, psiquismo m
• Ukrainian: пси́хіка f (psýxika)
• Vietnamese: tâm (vi), tinh thần (vi), tâm trí (vi)
• Yiddish: פּסיכע f (psikhe)

Etymology 2

Shortened form of psychology, from French psychologie, from Latin psychologia, from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul”) and -λογία (-logía, “study of”)

Alternative forms

• psych

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪk

Noun

psyche (uncountable)

1. Abbreviation of psychology.

Interjection

psyche

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of psych.

Verb

psyche (third-person singular simple present psyches, present participle psyching, simple past and past participle psyched)

1. Alternative form of psych.

Further reading

• “psyche”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “psyche”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin psychē, from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: psy‧che

Noun

psyche f (plural psyches, no diminutive)

1. psyche, soul, spirit

Derived terms

• psychisch

Descendants

• → Indonesian: psike

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ψῡχή (psūkhḗ, “soul, breath”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpsyː.kʰeː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpsiː.ke]

Noun

psȳchē f (genitive psȳchēs); first declension

1. mind
2. spirit

Declension

First-declension noun (feminine, Greek-type, nominative singular in -ē).

	singular	plural
nominative	psȳchē	psȳchae
genitive	psȳchēs	psȳchārum
dative	psȳchae	psȳchīs
accusative	psȳchēn	psȳchās
ablative	psȳchē	psȳchīs
vocative	psȳchē	psȳchae

Descendants

Descendants

• → Catalan: psique
• → Czech: psýcha
• → Danish: psyke
• → Dutch: psyche
• → English: psyche
• → Esperanto: psiko
• → Finnish: psyyke
• → French: psyché
• → German: Psyche
• → Italian: psiche
• → Occitan: psiquè
• → Portuguese: psique
• → Serbo-Croatian: psiha, пси̏ха
• → Sicilian: psichi
• → Spanish: psique, psiquis
• → Swedish: psyke
• → Yiddish: פּסיכע (psikhe)

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpsɘ.xɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɘxɛ
• Syllabification: psy‧che
• Homophones: Psyche, psychę

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek ψῡχή (psūkhḗ)bor.

Latin psychēlbor.

Polish psyche

Learned borrowing from Latin psychē.

Noun

psyche f (indeclinable)

1. (literary, psychoanalysis) psyche (human soul, mind, or spirit)

   Synonym: psychika

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French psyché.

Noun

psyche f (indeclinable)

1. cheval glass (long mirror, mounted on a swivel in a frame, allowing it to be tilted)

Related terms

nouns

• Psyche

Further reading

• “psyche”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)