# Origin of "psyche!" or "sike!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696 "2007-02-03T19:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr.nuggets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Dr.nuggets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.nuggets)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/1 "2007-02-03T19:38:59Z")
does anyone know the origin of the term “psyche!” like “I got a new car.” “really?” “PSYCHE!” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/2 "2007-02-03T19:43:07Z")
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!’ ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/3 "2007-02-03T19:47:58Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/4 "2007-02-03T19:51:53Z")
Hah! **Johnny L.A** _didn’t_ get it first: [Psych-Out (1968)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063469/) > [@](#): > > Hear! “Incense & Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock > > come where the PLEASURE LOVERS are > > Taste a Moment of Madness…Listen to the Sound of Purple ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/5 "2007-02-03T19:54:39Z")
The term was very popular in the mid-1980’s if that helps dispel any myths about it being new. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/6 "2007-02-03T20:08:17Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Hah! **Johnny L.A** _didn’t_ get it first: [/QUOTE] My definition is the way we used it in the late-'70s. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/7 "2007-02-03T20:25:24Z")
When I was in elementary school in the early- to late-70s, the phrase we used was “Psych your mind, twenty-five times!” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/8 "2007-02-03T21:13:33Z")
From dictionary-com. > [@](#): > > psych1 /saɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sahyk] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation > –verb (used with object) Informal. > > 1. to intimidate or frighten psychologically, or make nervous (often fol. by out): to psych out the competition. > 2. to prepare psychologically to be in the right frame of mind or to give one’s best (often fol. by up): to psych oneself up for an interview. > 3. to figure out psychologically; decipher (often fol. by out): to psych out a problem. > Also, psyche. > > [Origin: 1915–20 in earlier sense “to subject to psychoanalysis”; orig. a shortening of psychoanalyze; in later use (especially in defs. 1 and 2) perh. independent use of psych-] I would say from my recollection sense #1 goes back at least to the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/9 "2007-02-03T21:16:42Z")
According to the [Online Etymology Dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p&p=35) the sense used in the OP goes back to at least 1934: > [@](#): > > psych > short for psychology in various senses; as an academic study, in student slang by 1895. The verb is generally negative when used transitively, positive when intransitive; first attested (also psych out) 1934 as “to outsmart,” from 1963 as “to unnerve.” However to psych (oneself) up is from 1972; to be psyched up is attested from 1968. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/10 "2007-02-04T05:26:57Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] According to the [Online Etymology Dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p&p=35) 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? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/11 "2007-02-04T05:34:22Z")
“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.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/12 "2007-02-04T15:09:55Z")
[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? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-psyche-or-sike/390696/13 "2007-02-04T18:33:25Z")
“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.