Etymo

psychology

The study of mind and behaviour.

Played on · Day 18 · word 3 of 5

An account of the soul.

How psychology reached English

oldest first

Greek

  • psychē‘breath, principle of life, life, soul’
  • -logia‘study of’

combined

  1. New Latin

    psychologia

  2. English

    psychology

    ‘the study of the soul’

The story of psychology

Psychology comes through scientific Latin psychologia. Greek psychē had meanings involving life and soul, rather than simply the anatomical brain. The scientific discipline’s modern subject developed around a name made from older conceptual material.

This view explains the components. They are pieces of one construction, not consecutive borrowing stages.

Sources

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