cryptomnesia

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The phenomenon of the reappearance of a long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; (countable) an instance of this. Contrast cryptaesthesia.

Pronunciation

/ˌkɹɪp.tə(ʊ)mˈniː.zi.ə/ /ˌkɹɪp.tə(ʊ)mˈniː.ʒə/ /ˌkɹɪp.təmˈni.ʒi.ə/ /-ʒə/ /-zi.ə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cryptomnesia.wav

Word forms

cryptomnesia cryptomnesias cryptamnesia

Etymology

From crypto- (prefix meaning ‘hidden’) + (a)mnesia, modelled after French cryptomnésie, which was coined by Swiss psychologist and parapsychologist Théodore Flournoy (1854–1920) in his work Des Indes à la planète Mars (From India to the Planet Mars, 1899 or 1900). The English word was probably first used in the 1900 translation of Flournoy’s work: see the quotation.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.