Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Psychiatry
/səˈkaɪətri/noun
The branch of medicine concerned with mental illness.
The Greek roots
ψυχή
psykhḗ
soul, breath, life
ἰατρός
iatrós
physician, healer
Literally: “healing of the soul”
The story of the word
Johann Christian Reil coined Psychiatrie in German in 1808, arguing that madness was a matter for doctors rather than for jailers, and English took the word in the 1840s. ψυχή meant breath before it meant soul, the puff that leaves the body at death. The Greeks drew Psyche with butterfly wings and used the one word for both the soul and the insect.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → German coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1840s
Same family
psychologypsychepsychotherapypediatricsgeriatrics
In a sentence
She left surgery for psychiatry after her second year on the wards.
Psychiatry and psychology get confused constantly, usually about who can prescribe.