# How do you pronounce "Tachypsychia"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030 "2013-03-15T19:14:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/1 "2013-03-15T19:14:04Z")
I can’t seem to find the pronunciation anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/2 "2013-03-15T19:18:26Z")
I’ve never seen those two greek roots put together, but given their usual pronunciation in other words I’d go with TACK-i-SIKE-ee-ah. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/3 "2013-03-15T19:22:31Z")
Tak-ee-sahy-kee-_uh_ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/4 "2013-03-15T19:26:11Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > I’ve never seen those two greek roots put together, but given their usual pronunciation in other words I’d go with TACK-i-SIKE-ee-ah. That’s how I would say it, too, following the same stress pattern as in “tachycardia.” ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/5 "2013-03-15T19:41:50Z")
You’ll hear it pronounced here: [Clang Kickstarter Campaign Update: Timing, Lag and Tachypsychia - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANy-kuAjnUM) However, it’s a word that has no presence in any dictionary and its Wiki entry is unlinked to anything else on the web. The sensation of time slowing down (making you ‘think or move faster’) is usually just described with the phrase of “sensation of time slowing” in most things psychological and pharmacological without there being a specific word for that. It seems this word is coined mostly by the gaming community. Don’t expect anyone to know what it means when you use it. You’ll have to define it for everyone every time you do. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/6 "2013-03-16T00:32:35Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > Don’t expect anyone to know what it means when you use it. You’ll have to define it for everyone every time you do. I’d have guessed it means “thinking fast”. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-tachypsychia/653030/7 "2013-03-16T02:07:55Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > You’ll hear it pronounced here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANy-kuAjnUM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANy-kuAjnUM) > > However, it’s a word that has no presence in any dictionary and its Wiki entry is unlinked to anything else on the web. The sensation of time slowing down (making you ‘think or move faster’) is usually just described with the phrase of “sensation of time slowing” in most things psychological and pharmacological without there being a specific word for that. It seems this word is coined mostly by the gaming community. > > Don’t expect anyone to know what it means when you use it. You’ll have to define it for everyone every time you do. Is this the thing when, say, a near-accident lasts only three seconds, but in it, as you remember it, it feels like it lasted a long time? I ask because its been on my mind a lot these days. The Story: I was dragged by a public bus into traffic recently, with one foot on the bus-step and the other on the ground with my service dog by my side on the street. The driver, who was staring me down moments before as he repeatedly flapped the doors to make me let go from the closing doors and go away from the bus. I fell forward to grab a bar as he started the engine. He stopped moving after maybe five seconds. During that time I remember I had four strong, strong thoughts. In order: Is this driver crazy, have I suffered a relapse of ataxia (a motor-control disease that turns you into collapsing jelly), I am being dragged into traffic, and, it’s time to die, so let me compose and quiet myself. I think that that timespan, in my memory now, seems so long because I remember those thoughts as clear as day–the kind of memorable thoughts that one usually gets only after long (wall-clock) time. Seems like a lot only because the thoughts were deeply etched, because I was in extremis. Does that sound plausible? It seems similar to the vaunted “air time” of Michael Jordan. He only seems to hang in the air more than anyone else not because he spends more clock-time aloft than many other players, but because he does so much more stuff “effortlessly” during that time.