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Origin and history of psychiatric

psychiatric(adj.)

"of, pertaining to, or connected with psychiatry," 1837, from German psychiatrisch or French psychiatrique or else coined in English from psychiatry + -ic.

also from 1837

Entries linking to psychiatric

psychiatry(n.)

"the medical treatment of mental diseases," 1846, from French psychiatrie, from Medieval Latin psychiatria, literally "a healing of the soul," from Latinized form of Greek psykhē "mind" (see psyche) + iatreia "healing, care" (see -iatric).

-ic

Middle English -ik, -ick, word-forming element making adjectives, "having to do with, having the nature of, being, made of, caused by, similar to," from French -ique and directly from Latin -icus or from cognate Greek -ikos "in the manner of; pertaining to." From PIE adjective suffix *-(i)ko, which also yielded Slavic -isku, adjectival suffix indicating origin, the source of the -sky (Russian -skii) in many surnames. In chemistry, indicating a higher valence than names in -ous (first in benzoic, 1791).

In Middle English and after often spelled -ick, -ike, -ique. Variant forms in -ick (critick, ethick) were common in early Modern English and survived in English dictionaries into early 19c. This spelling was supported by Johnson but opposed by Webster, who prevailed.

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    confabulate
    Psychiatric sense is from 1924. Earlier verb was confable (c. 1500), from Old French confabuler....
    anxiety
    It was sometimes considered a pathological condition (1660s); modern psychiatric use dates to 1904....
    bipolar
    Psychiatric use in reference to what had been called manic-depressive psychosis is said to have begun 1957 with German psychiatrist...
    couch
    As symbolic of a psychiatric treatment or psychoanalysis, by 1952. Couch potato first recorded 1979....
    act
    To act out "behave anti-socially" (1974) is from psychiatric sense of "expressing one's unconscious impulses or desires"...
    perfunctory
    "done mechanically or without interest or zeal and merely for the sake of being rid of the duty of doing it; done so as to conform to the letter but not the spirit," 1580s, from Late Latin perfunctorius "careless, negligent," literally "like one who wishes to get through a thing,
    virtue
    c. 1200, vertu, "moral life and conduct; a particular moral excellence," from Anglo-French and Old French vertu "force, strength, vigor; moral strength; qualities, abilities" (10c. in Old French), from Latin virtutem (nominative virtus) "moral strength, high character, goodness;
    trespass
    c. 1300, "transgress in some active manner, commit an aggressive offense, to sin," from Old French trespasser "pass beyond or across, cross, traverse; infringe, violate," from tres- "beyond" (from Latin trans; see trans-) + passer "go by, pass" (see pass (v.)). Meaning "enter unl
    Gothic
    "of the Goths," the ancient Germanic people, "pertaining to the Goths or their language," 1610s, from Late Latin Gothicus, from Gothi, Greek Gothoi (see Goth). Old English had Gotisc. As a noun, "the language of the Goths," from 1757. Gothic was used by 17c. scholars to mean "Ger
    sad
    Old English sæd "sated, full, having had one's fill (of food, drink, fighting, etc.), weary of," from Proto-Germanic *sathaz (source also of Old Norse saðr, Middle Dutch sat, Dutch zad, Old High German sat, German satt, Gothic saþs "satiated, sated, full"), from PIE *seto-, from

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