does anyone know the origin of the term “psyche!” like
“I got a new car.”
“really?”
“PSYCHE!”
Short for ‘I psyched you out!’, which is much easier to say than ‘I have played a psychological game, and you believed what I said was true!’
The idea is tantalizing enough for me to venture some guesses, none of which is more than that. I don’t use, nor have I used, the expression, but I have heard younger people (as in my kids) say things like that in the past. Surely other younger Dopers will get closer than this stab.
I suppose “psycho” as a synonym for “crazy” would be in the ballpark, and “crazy” as a substitute for “exciting” or “terrific” is something I do recall using. So to go from “psycho” to “psyche” isn’t too big a stretch, I’d say.
Also, the “psyche” from “psyche out” for “surprise” or “render speechless” might have a similar basis. A similar shortening might come about the same way that the Beatles used “gear” for “great.”
Just stabs.
Hah! Johnny L.A didn’t get it first:
Psych-Out (1968)
The term was very popular in the mid-1980’s if that helps dispel any myths about it being new.
[QUOTE=Squink]
Hah! Johnny L.A didn’t get it first:
[/QUOTE]
My definition is the way we used it in the late-'70s.
When I was in elementary school in the early- to late-70s, the phrase we used was “Psych your mind, twenty-five times!”
From dictionary-com.
I would say from my recollection sense #1 goes back at least to the 1960s.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the sense used in the OP goes back to at least 1934:
[QUOTE=Colibri]
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the sense used in the OP goes back to at least 1934:
[/QUOTE]
I can’t find it that early. I wonder what their cite is?
“A lovely young lady named Psyche
Is loved by a fellow named Yche.
One thing about Ych
That she doesn’t lych
Is his beard, which is terribly spyche.”
[QUOTE=samclem]
I can’t find it that early. I wonder what their cite is?
[/QUOTE]
For psyche (in that sense) or psyche out? It’s unclear from the reference which they mean.
What’s the earliest you have for psyche-out? What’s the earliest for psyche in the sense used in the OP?
“Sike!” as the OP uses it means, “I fooled you.”
I’m sure it’s as old as the hills, but I think it really went (inter)national after Eddie Murphy released Comedian, which has a skit called “Ice Cream Man.” At one point he mimics a kid who has ice cream, which the friend he’s taunting has none. He offers the ice cream cone - “Want a lick?” then yanks it back, yelling “Sike!”
After that, all the kids used that term for at least five years (I was 11 at the time). Not so much anymore.