psychic

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ψυχικός (psukhikós, “relative to the soul, spirit, mind”). Earlier referred to as "psychical"; or from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, psyche”). First appeared (as substantive) 1871 and first records 1895.

noun

1. A person who possesses, or appears to possess, extra-sensory abilities such as precognition, clairvoyance and telepathy, or who appears to be susceptible to paranormal or supernatural influences.
2. (parapsychology) A person who supposedly contacts the dead; a medium.
3. (Gnosticism) In gnostic theologian Valentinus' triadic grouping of man the second type; a person focused on intellectual reality (the other two being hylic and pneumatic).

adj

1. Relating to or having the abilities of a psychic.
   You must be psychic—I was just about to say that.
   She is a psychic person—she hears messages from beyond.
2. Relating to the psyche or mind, or to mental activity in general.
   In the following pages I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state. 1913, Abraham Brill, transl., The Interpretation of Dreams, translation of original by Sigmund Freud
   A pathological process called 'psychiatrosis' may well be found, by the same methods, to be a delineable entity, with somatic correlates, and psychic mechanisms […] 1967, R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise