mentaladj.1n.
/ˈmɛntl/, U.S. /ˈmɛn(t)l/ A. adj.1 (In all senses except A. 4 and A. 6 predominantly used attributive)
I. Senses relating to the human mind in the most general sense.
1. Of or relating to the mind.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > [adjective]
mental?c1422
mindly1434
phrenic1826
?c1422 T. Hoccleve Ars Sciendi Mori l. 666 in Minor Poems (1970) i. 203 But now y see with myn yen mental Thestat of al an-othir world than this.
c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Gouernaunce of Princis (1993) xxiii. 96 Fra all vexacioun corporale and mentale.
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xxiii. 219 In like sort the mynde for the things that be his mentall obiectes hath his good graces and his bad.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida ii. iii. 172 Twixt his mentall and his actiue parts, Kingdomd Achilles in commotion rages. View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xi. 418 The inmost seat of mental sight. View more context for this quotation
1733 A. Pope Ess. Man (rev. ed.) i. 200 Far as Creation's ample Range extends, The Scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends.
1778 V. Knox Ess. II. xxvi. 254 Mental food is also found..to..delight the longest, when it is not lusciously sweet.
1802 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 8 356 Avoid excess in eating, drinking, and in mental exertion.
a1820 T. Brown Lect. Philos. Human Mind I. 240 We shall now proceed to observe..the mental phenomena.
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic II. vi. iv. 506 These differences of mental susceptibility..may be consequences of the previous mental history of those individuals.
1879 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 139 Ever some vital factor of our mental life will rebel and refuse to be dragged the same way with the rest.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. ii. 48 A most interesting effect of cortical disorder is mental blindness. This consists not so much in insensibility to optical impressions, as in inability to understand them.
1900 Daily News 1 Aug. 5/7 His mental state was inherited from long-past generations.
1916 L. M. Terman Measurem. of Intelligence i. 6 The large majority of these belong to the moron grade; that is, their mental development will stop somewhere..between 9 and 12.
1921 B. Russell Anal. Mind viii. 141 The sensation, as a mental event, will consist of awareness of the colour.
1932 Mind 41 137 A man whose whole life had been devoted to thought, and whose intense mental energy came out all the more clearly as his bodily powers declined.
1949 R. G. Simpson Fund. Educ. Psychol. ii. 22 Growth of mental functions is not as easily traced as that of physical abilities, primarily because mental growth is composed of many characteristics.
1973 A. Kenny Wittgenstein viii. 142 When we hear a sentence in a language we know, there are mental events—feelings, images, etc.
1981 A. Judd Breed of Heroes ii. vi. 120 Either way, it was a mental as well as a physical burden.
2. Carried on or performed by the mind; taking place in the mind; formed in the mind. See also mental arithmetic n., mental reservation n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > [adjective] > as object of study
mental?a1425
the mind > mental capacity > [adjective]
mental?a1425
intentional1624
psychodynamic1874
intra-mental1904
intra-psychic1917
intrapsychical1935
mentalistic1962
?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 145 (MED) But first God schewiþ..how a soule schal come fro vocal preyer to mental preyer.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. HHHivv To..use that maner of prayer, whether it be mentall or vocall, in the which he fyndeth most swetnesse.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. iii. 8 By Consequence,..I understand that succession of one Thought to another, which is called..Mentall Discourse.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iv. xlvi. 372 Those Ideas, or mentall Images we have of all things wee see, or remember.
1676 J. Locke Jrnl. 26 Aug. in Ess. Law Nature (1954) 278 The thing to be believed was a proper object of faith and not of sense, a mental proposition, viz. that the God of the three children was the true God.
1796 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 86 173 σ Leonis..being marked by Flamsteed 4.5m, the star itself will in every respect pass for one of that magnitude, when compared to a mental standard taken from other stars of the same author.
1818 S. T. Coleridge Friend (new ed.) I. iv. 35 A lazy half-attention amounts to a mental yawn.
1832 D. Brewster Lett. Nat. Magic iii. 50 With persons of studious habits, who are much occupied with the operations of their own minds, the mental pictures are much more distinct.
1850 J. McCosh Method Divine Govt. (ed. 2) iii. i. 292 The mental process..by which the distinction between vice and virtue is observed.
1865 J. S. Mill Exam. Hamilton's Philos. vi. 72 The belief is without understanding, for we form no mental picture of what we believe.
1880 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 161 This complex aggregate of afferent feelings..renders absolutely precise and distinctive our mental image of the exact strength of movement to be made.
1921 B. Russell Anal. Mind vi. 109 ‘Introspection’ is supposed to furnish data for knowledge of our mental processes.
1925 H. J. Laski Let. 28 Apr. in Holmes–Laski Lett. (1953) I. iv. 735 Clearly, there is no adequacy in purely mental travel, despite the example of Kant.
1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revol. iv. 56 The deliberate ‘mental operation’ of psycho~analysis or other form of psychotherapy.
1949 G. Ryle Concept of Mind vii. 200 Stomach-aches..have physiological attachments which threaten to sully the purity of the brook of mental experiences.
1972 W. C. Coe Challenges Personal Adjustm. iv. 76 Mental telepathy is the transfer of thought from one person to another without overt communication.
1983 G. Lord Tooth & Claw vi. 43 He had subjected her to a mental form of assault and battery.
1996 S. King Desperation i. i. 11 Doing a rough mental calculation that used the roof of the car as a steering-point.
3. Of or relating to the mind as an object of study; concerned with the phenomena of the mind.
ΚΠ
1815 J. B. Scott Diary 3 Aug. in E. Mann Englishman at Home & Abroad (1930) vii. 167 My main object was to gain practical knowledge of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and Mental Philosophy.
a1820 T. Brown Lect. Philos. Human Mind I. 8 There is, in short, a science that may be termed mental physiology.
1828 G. Payne (title) Elements of mental and moral science.
1831 T. C. Upham (title) Elements of mental philosophy.
1860 J. Martineau Ess. Philos. & Theol. (1866) 1st Ser. I. 248 Mental Science is Self-knowledge.
1925 Philos. Rev. 34 334 Dilthey held that for the mental sciences..the natural scientific method is insufficient.
1967 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 113 766/1 The other department of mental science was psychology, whose task it was to investigate objectively the causal and genetic background of mental phenomena.
4. Characterized by the possession of an active mind; thoughtful; intellectual. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intellect > [adjective]
intellectualc1454
intellectivea1475
skilful1532
dianoetical1570
intelligential1611
noetical1644
noetic1653
dianoetic1677
intellectile1677
spiritual1701
mental1840
noematic1860
1840 B. E. Hill Pinch—of Snuff 96 Platonically enamoured of the beauteous, mental, and excellent wife to a very jealous moralist.
1983 J. Jones Dostoevsky ii. 202 This young man is also very mental. His being is riddled with theory and hypothesis.
II. Senses relating to the mind in an unhealthy or abnormal state.
5.
a. Designating a temporary or permanent impairment of the mind due to inherited defect, injury, illness, or environment, usually needing special care or rehabilitation. Esp. in mental breakdown, mental deficiency, mental disease, mental disorder, mental incapacity, mental retardation, etc.; see also mental illness n. at Compounds.
ΚΠ
1768 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued II. ii. xxi. 47 Bringing on the inconveniences, disabilities, pains and mental disorders spoken of.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xxiv. 640 (note) Jupiter justifies him against Apollo's charge, affirming him to be free from those mental defects which chiefly betray men into sin.
1794 H. L. Piozzi Brit. Synonymy II. 6 Phrenzy, madness and distraction are the poetical expressions of what we call mental derangement, or disordered spirits, in elegant conversation.
1812 T. Jefferson Let. in Papers (2008) Retirement Ser. V. 95 It would only change the topic of abuse with the former, and not cure the mental disease of the latter.
1838 Biblical Repertory Apr. 294 Large tumours have been found in the encephalon, which must have compressed the brain for years, without producing the least mental defect or aberration.
1839 E. A. Poe Fall House of Usher in Burton's Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 150 And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observable change came over the features of the mental disorder of my friend.
1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre III. i. 21 I resolved to be clean in my own sight—and to the last I repudiated the contamination of her crimes, and wrenched myself from connexion with her mental defects.
1856 Educ. of Imbecile (Home for Invalid & Imbecile Children, Edinburgh) 11 His appearance and bearing gave evidence of great mental deficiency.
1869 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 21 Sept. (1956) V. 56 I have such a horror of a mental breakdown.
1904 Lancet 27 Aug. 598/2 Scientific views regarding mental disease have..been undergoing great changes.
1904 Lancet 17 Sept. 838/1 Those cases of mental incapacity arising from incipient or oncoming insanity.
1907 J. London Iron Heel x. 166 Hints were made of mental breakdown on his part.
1908 Rep. Royal Comm. Feeble Minded VIII. 324 in Parl. Papers (Cd. 4202) XXXIX. 159 ‘Feeble minded’, i.e., persons who may be capable of earning a living under favourable circumstances, but are incapable from mental defect existing from birth or from an early age: (a) of competing on equal terms with their normal fellows; or (b) of managing themselves and their affairs with ordinary prudence.
1908 Lancet 12 Sept. 812/2 It was difficult..to secure effective treatment for early undeveloped cases of mental disorder.
1913 Act 3 & 4 George V c. 28 (title) Mental deficiency act.
1914 W. B. Drummond tr. A. Binet & T. Simon Mentally Defective Children ii. 16 Some heads of schools..have fixed to almost a year the mental retardation of the child as compared with normal children of the same age.
1921 C. L. Burt Mental & Scholastic Tests ii. 163 The central problem of this memorandum—the line of demarcation for mental deficiency.
1946 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 103 323/1 At the present time it cannot be said that we cure any of the more important and more fixed mental diseases.
1960 Guardian 16 Mar. 4/6 The most important change in terminology made by the new Act [sc. the Mental Health Act, 1959] is that the expressions ‘mental deficiency’ and ‘mental defectives’ should be abolished... ‘Mental disorder’ is introduced as a new term covering all forms of mental ill health.
1964 J. Tizard Community Services for Mentally Handicapped i. ii. 18 There is a statutory obligation placed upon the local authorities in Britain to ascertain cases of mental subnormality..and to make provision for them.
1967 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 113 340/1 It is a relief to find that the old title ‘Mental Deficiency’ has been allowed to remain and has not been replaced by the much less accurate legal (in England) term ‘Mental Subnormality’.
1970 ‘T. Coe’ Wax Apple (1973) vi. 50 I automatically had felt superior. After all, I'd never had a mental breakdown.
1971 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg) 4 Sept. 2/1 Nothing he had heard in court suggested that Muller has ever had a mental disorder.
1989 C. Caufield Multiple Exposures (1990) 247 Safeguards should be introduced to guard against the accidental irradiation of women in the early months of pregnancy when the foetus is particularly vulnerable to mental retardation.
1991 Jrnl. Mental Deficiency Res. 35 195 The control patients had a wide variety of causes for mental deficiency.
1994 Nature 7 July 29/3 Mental retardation is a distressing fact of nature with which families, humanitarians and social policymakers must contend.
b. Designating a place where those with disorders of the mind are treated or confined. Esp. in mental home, mental institution, mental ward, etc.; see also mental hospital n. at Compounds.Now somewhat dated, and sometimes avoided as potentially offensive; psychiatric is often used instead.
ΚΠ
1898 H. Morten Compl. Syst. Nursing 249 A year's training in a general hospital, and two years' training in a mental hospital, would be the proper scheme to turn out the best mental nurse.
1908 Lancet 26 Dec. 1943/1 (heading) Mental observation wards in Glasgow Parish Hospital.
1926 W. Lewis Art of being Ruled xii. vii. 405 The goitrous torpid and squinting husks provided by Matisse in his sculpture are worthless except as tactful decorations for a mental home.
1932 R. Kipling Limits & Renewals 151 They pushed him into a Mental Home, And that is like the grave.
1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose v. 182 He had three young children and disliked the thought of bringing them up in the surroundings of a mental home.
1970 ‘T. Coe’ Wax Apple (1973) ii. 17 The Midway was a haven for people recently out of mental institutions.
1974 N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 74 We're looking at every affair..linked to mental homes, prison releases..psychopathic anything.
1983 Listener 10 Feb. 27/1 He drew..cowering men at the mercy of big, entirely Thurberian bully-women with mental-institution haircuts.
1991 S. Faludi Backlash ii. iv. 98 The press condemned them [sc. single women] to the mental ward once more for the duration of the Depression.
1993 Harper's Mag. Sept. 32/2 Trevor got the sack the same day he was allocated a place in the mental home.
c. Designating a person specializing in the treatment or care of individuals with disorders of the mind. Esp. in mental nurse.
ΚΠ
1898 H. Morten Compl. Syst. Nursing 249 A year's training in a general hospital, and two years' training in a mental hospital, would be the proper scheme to turn out the best mental nurse.
1922 Lancet 5 Aug. 290/1 The two duties of mental nurses.
1932 Daily Tel. 25 Apr. 9/3 Dr. Caton, the eminent mental specialist,..has completed his findings of the state of Lt. Massie's mind at the time.
1996 Independent 16 Jan. 8/1 In a small office in the Gordon psychiatric hospital, in central London, sits..a registered mental nurse.
d. Designating a person suffering from an illness or impairment of the mind. Esp. in mental case, mental defective.A use now increasingly avoided.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > affected with
deleerit1786
psychopathic1888
mental1899
wackadoo1958
wackadoodle1993
1899 Appletons' Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 747 (title) Mental defectives and social welfare.
1904 Lancet 17 Sept. 838/1 The Home Secretary..has at last been impressed with the total inadequacy of the provision made for..mental incapables.
1908 Lancet 12 Sept. 813/2 Dr. W. C. S. Clapham..had many suspected mental cases sent to his out-patient department.
1913 E. Meynell Life F. Thompson 279 Many a time I've asked him to have his bit of lunch with me and the other ‘mental’—O yes, she's a mental case, as I may have told you.
1922 Edinb. Rev. July 34 The Eugenics Education Society..actively supported the Act for the compulsory segregation of mental defectives.
1944 H. G. Wells '42 to '44 182 The highly bred dogs are mostly physical and mental defectives.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 97 808/1 He distrusted psychiatrists, fearing that his physical condition would be forgotten and that he would be labelled a ‘mental case’.
1992 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Dec. 18/2 I had always thought of him as less a mental defective than an amiable simpleton whose huge hands just need keeping an eye on.
6. colloquial.
a. Mentally ill; mentally disabled. Also in weakened sense: irrational, uncontrolled, eccentric, crazy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > mental deficiency > [adjective]
witlessc1000
fonda1400
brainless1434
doitedc1450
feeble-minded1534
half-witted1712
fatuous1773
a screw loose1810
losta1822
balmy1851
a shingle short1852
retardate1912
mental1927
subcultural1931
psychological1952
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with
woodc725
woodsekc890
giddyc1000
out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000
witlessc1000
brainsickOE
amadc1225
lunaticc1290
madc1330
sickc1340
brain-wooda1375
out of one's minda1387
frenetica1398
fonda1400
formada1400
unwisea1400
brainc1400
unwholec1400
alienate?a1425
brainless1434
distract of one's wits1470
madfula1475
furious1475
distract1481
fro oneself1483
beside oneself1490
beside one's patience1490
dementa1500
red-wood?1507
extraught1509
misminded1509
peevish1523
bedlam-ripe1525
straughta1529
fanatic1533
bedlama1535
daft1540
unsounda1547
stark raving (also staring) mad1548
distraughted1572
insane1575
acrazeda1577
past oneself1576
frenzy1577
poll-mad1577
out of one's senses1580
maddeda1586
frenetical1588
distempered1593
distraught1597
crazed1599
diswitted1599
idle-headed1599
lymphatical1603
extract1608
madling1608
distracteda1616
informala1616
far gone1616
crazy1617
March mada1625
non compos mentis1628
brain-crazed1632
demented1632
crack-brained1634
arreptitiousa1641
dementate1640
dementated1650
brain-crackeda1652
insaniated1652
exsensed1654
bedlam-witteda1657
lymphatic1656
mad-like1679
dementative1685
non compos1699
beside one's gravity1716
hyte1720
lymphated1727
out of one's head1733
maddened1735
swivel-eyed1758
wrong1765
brainsickly1770
fatuous1773
derangedc1790
alienated1793
shake-brained1793
crack-headed1796
flighty1802
wowf1802
doitrified1808
phrenesiac1814
bedlamite1815
mad-braineda1822
fey1823
bedlamitish1824
skire1825
beside one's wits1827
as mad as a hatter1829
crazied1842
off one's head1842
bemadded1850
loco1852
off one's nut1858
off his chump1864
unsane1867
meshuga1868
non-sane1868
loony1872
bee-headed1879
off one's onion1881
off one's base1882
(to go) off one's dot1883
locoed1885
screwy1887
off one's rocker1890
balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891
meshuggener1892
nutty1892
buggy1893
bughouse1894
off one's pannikin1894
ratty1895
off one's trolley1896
batchy1898
twisted1900
batsc1901
batty1903
dippy1903
bugs1904
dingy1904
up the (also a) pole1904
nut1906
nuts1908
nutty as a fruitcake1911
bugged1920
potty1920
cuckoo1923
nutsy1923
puggled1923
blah1924
détraqué1925
doolally1925
off one's rocket1925
puggle1925
mental1927
phooey1927
crackers1928
squirrelly1928
over the edge1929
round the bend1929
lakes1934
ding-a-ling1935
wacky1935
screwball1936
dingbats1937
Asiatic1938
parlatic1941
troppo1941
up the creek1941
screwed-up1943
bonkers1945
psychological1952
out to lunch1955
starkers1956
off (one's) squiff1960
round the twist1960
yampy1963
out of (also off) one's bird1966
out of one's skull1967
whacked out1969
batshit1971
woo-woo1971
nutso1973
out of (one's) gourd1977
wacko1977
off one's meds1986
1927 D. L. Sayers Unnatural Death iv. 41 I gather she was a little queer towards the end—a bit mental, I think you people [sc. nurses] call it?
1959 S. Gibbons Pink Front Door iv. 48 They had the same round eyes, only his hadn't got that almost mental look.
1963 J. Didion Run, River xi. 111 Elizabeth was practically mental about jazz musicians.
1974 N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 65 There's somebody mental floating about.
1987 News on Sunday 19 July 3/6 There was a conspiracy to get rid of him, the feller was mental.
b. to go mental: to become mentally unbalanced; (later chiefly) to lose one's self-control, give way to overwhelming emotion (frequently in negative contexts, but more recently (as in quot. 1992) also in positive sense of ecstatic abandon).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > be or become mad [verb (intransitive)]
dwelec900
wedec900
awedeeOE
starea1275
braidc1275
ravea1325
to be out of mindc1325
woodc1374
to lose one's mindc1380
madc1384
forgetc1385
to go out of one's minda1398
to wede (out) of, but wita1400
foolc1400
to go (also fall, run) mada1450
forcene1490
ragec1515
waltc1540
maddle?c1550
to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1565
pass of wita1616
to have a gad-bee in one's brain1682
madden1704
to go (also be) off at the nail1721
distract1768
craze1818
to get a rat1890
to need (to have) one's head examined (also checked, read)1896
(to have) bats in the belfryc1901
to have straws in one's hair1923
to take the bats1927
to go haywire1929
to go mental1930
to go troppo1941
to come apart1954
1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement ii. 68 I don't care if Mr. Dersingham goes mental, we're going to be lucky.
1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose iv. 151 Everybody goes a bit mental in a war.
1990 Catch Feb. 27/2 I went really mental at her and accused her of lying.
1992 Village Voice (N.Y.) 28 Jan. 49/1 (advt.) Take the express train and go mental to the sounds of DJ Steve McMahon.
1995 N. Blincoe Acid Casuals iv. 25 Now, if anyone passes out from the heat or drink, anything, the bouncers go mental.
1998 A. Warner Sopranos 48 It's gonna be brilliant Michelle, we're just gonna go mental.
B. n.† 1.
a. In singular and plural. Intellectual faculties. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intellect > [noun]
i-witc888
anyitOE
witOE
thoughtOE
inwitc1305
intention1340
mindc1384
understandingc1384
intentc1386
intelligencec1390
intellecta1398
minda1398
understanda1400
intellectionc1449
ingeny1477
intellectivec1484
mind-sight1587
intellectual1598
notion1604
intelligency1663
mental1676
nous1678
grasp1683
thinker1835
Geist1871
noesis1881
1676 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 11 554 The intrinsick mentals or intellectuals of Mankind.
a1763 J. Byrom Misc. Poems (1773) I. 200 One sees how corpuscular Eating, and Drinking, Make Youth, in its Mentals, so stout, and unthinking.
b. In plural. Mental reservations. Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > keeping from knowledge > hidden or indirect meaning > [noun] > mental reservation
mental reservation1606
restriction1607
precision1683
mentals1712
1712 J. Arbuthnot Lewis Baboon iv. iv. 21 Hast thou laid aside all thy Equivocals and Mentals in this case?
2. With the. That which relates to the mind; the domain of the mind.
ΚΠ
1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. vii. 263 The analysis of the material is not the same as the analysis of the mental.
1930 H. M. Foston Man & Image of God vii. 120 The chasm between the mental and the apparently non-mental.
1989 P. McCabe Carn vi. 95 Maisie Lynch is her name. Half daft but there's no harm in her. Divides her time between here and the mental.
1991 Mind 100 135 The physical excludes the mental, according to the supervenience physicalist.
3. colloquial. A person who is mentally ill; a psychiatric patient.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > mentally ill person > [noun] > mad person
woodman1297
madmanc1330
lunatic1377
franticc1380
madwomana1438
March harec1500
Bedlam beggar1525
fanaticc1525
bedlama1529
frenetic1528
Jack o' Bedlam1528
Tom o' Bedlam1569
crack-brain1570
madbrain1570
Tom1575
madcap1589
gelt1596
madhead1600
brainsick1605
madpash1611
non compos1628
madling1638
bedlam-man1658
bedlamerc1675
fan1682
bedlamite1691
cracka1701
lymphatic1708
shatter-brain1719
mad1729
maniaca1763
non compos mentis1765
shatter-pate1775
shatter-wit1775
insane1786
craze1831
dement1857
crazy1867
crackpot1883
loony1884
bug1885
psychopath1885
dingbat1887
psychopathic1890
ding-a-ling1899
meshuggener1900
détraqué1902
maddiea1903
nut1908
mental1913
ding1929
lakes1934
wack1938
fruitcake1942
nutty1942
barm-pot1951
nutcake1953
nutter1958
nutcase1959
nut job1959
meshuga1962
nutsy1964
headcase1965
nutball1968
headbanger1973
nutso1975
wacko1977
nut bar1978
mentalist1990
1913 E. Meynell Life F. Thompson 279 Many a time I've asked him to have his bit of lunch with me and the other ‘mental’—O yes, she's a mental case, as I may have told you.
1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 517/1 Mental, a person mentally deranged, mad.
1973 F. De Felitta Oktoberfest (1974) xiv. 162 ‘What's to prevent him from going?’ ‘He is a mental.’
1984 D. DeLillo White Noise (1985) iii. xxxiii. 254 Mentals are unpredictable because they don't know themselves what they're doing.
Compounds
mental age n. [probably after French la maturité d'intelligence or l'âge d'intelligence (respectively 1908 and 1909 in the usage of A. Binet and T. Simon)] the degree of mental development of a person, expressed as the age at which a similar degree of development is attained by an average person.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > [noun] > degree of mental development
mental age1910
MA1940
1910 Pedagogical Seminary 17 392 In order to get some accurate idea as to what mental age meant in the training of these children, we had to cut out all of those who were beyond the training period.
1937 ‘M. Innes’ Hamlet, Revenge! iii. iii. 259 His mental age's about eight.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 1 June b14/5 Tanya is 19 years of age but since the accident she's suffered from brain damage and now has the mental age of a child of eight years old.
mental arithmetic n. arithmetic performed entirely in the head, without recourse to written figures or calculating aids.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic > [noun] > kinds of
decimal arithmetic1608
disme1608
decimal1623
vulgar arithmetic1653
logistic1656
figurate arithmetic1666
rhabdology1667
mental arithmetic1766
binary arithmetic1796
1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality I. vii. 260 I cast up, in a pleasing kind of mental arithmetic, how much my weekly twenty guineas would amount to at the year's end.
1838 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 1 307 Reading, writing on slates, and mental arithmetic, are taught in classes, with moral duties, and the Scriptures.
1889 W. C. Brownell French Traits iii. 98 The French intelligence seems to have almost no frivolous side. The different varieties of mental arithmetic, guessing-games, puzzles, puns, spiritualism, theosophy, fanaticisms, have no attractions for it.
1935 C. L. Burt Subnormal Mind i. 41 The reading test and the mental arithmetic test..will yield a fair estimate of the child's educational level.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 5 Oct. (Review section) 20 Does a reliance on mathematical aids mean mental arithmetic suffers?
mental block n. Psychology an inability to recall something or to perform a particular mental process.
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1939 B. M. Martinson in Jrnl. Exper. Psychol. 24 143 In a long series of experiments he [sc. A. Bills] developed the theory of ‘mental blocks’.
1945 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 16 228 A mental block or a profound temperamental idiosyncrasy precludes a student from the study of mathematics or French or Latin or Greek or something else.
1998 Guardian 24 Oct. (Travel section) 2/2 Liliana had a total mental block when it came to learning the name of the blue-footed booby.
mental blocking n. Psychology = blocking n. 1f.
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1932 Amer. Math. Monthly 39 376 The initial mental blocking that sometimes affects a student confronted with a new problem.
1935 A. G. Bills in Jrnl. Exper. Psychol. 18 172 The other study reports the discovery of the principle of mental blocking.
1990 Independent Living (Nexis) Feb. 85 Picking up the telephone, placing the ad, exposing ourselves—all these become monumental. With the mental blocking comes the fear.
mental chemistry n. Psychology the psychological processes by which complex ideas, sensations, etc., are generated from simple ones (without being merely the sum of them), conceived of as analogous to certain chemical phenomena.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > psychology of ideas > [noun] > formation of complex ideas
mental chemistry1843
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic II. vi. iv. 503 These therefore are cases of mental chemistry: in which it is proper to say that the simple ideas generate, rather than that they compose, the complex ones.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xx. 202 Discrimination, association, [etc.]..are quite capable of giving us all the space-perceptions we have so far studied, without the aid of any mysterious ‘mental chemistry’.
1948 R. S. Woodworth Contemp. Schools Psychol. (ed. 2) iii. 44 This idea of a ‘mental chemistry’ reappeared from time to time in later psychological theories.
1990 Sci. Amer. Dec. 48/3 Their [sc. structuralists'] view has been described as ‘mental chemistry’ because it assumes that perceptions can be analyzed component by component, much as molecules can be broken down into atoms.
mental cruelty n. chiefly Law conduct which inflicts suffering on another person without involving physical assault, esp. (U.S.) as constituting grounds for legal separation or divorce.
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the mind > emotion > suffering > cause of mental pain or suffering > [noun]
sorrowOE
ail?c1225
scorpion?c1225
dolec1290
angera1325
anguishc1330
cupa1340
aggrievancea1400
discomfortc1405
afflictionc1429
sytec1440
pressurea1500
constraint1509
tenterhook1532
grief1535
annoying1566
troubler1567
griper1573
vexation1588
infliction1590
trouble1591
temptationc1595
load1600
torment1600
wringer1602
sorance1609
inflicting1611
brusha1616
freighta1631
woe-heart1637
ordeala1658
cut-up1782
unpleasure1792
iron maiden1870
mental cruelty1899
the mind > goodness and badness > harmfulness > savagery > savage action > [noun] > affecting mind
mental cruelty1899
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > ill-treatment > cruelty > [noun] > affecting mind
mental cruelty1899
1899 C. H. Garoutte in Rep. Supreme Court Calif. 122 58 The cruelty relied upon to support the complaint is largely mental cruelty.
1928 Harper's Mag. July 159/1 The Nevada laws..necessitate a minimum of fraud... The judges demand very slight evidence to prove mental cruelty. A woman may obtain her freedom on the ground that her husband has..told her to go to hell once too often.
1967 R. S. Master Elem. Psychiatry xx. 398 The petitioner has to prove..that the spouse can differentiate between right and wrong and understand the nature of the mental cruelty.
1992 Daily Express 9 Sept. 9/5 Will they..release Kate the untamed shrew to drag Petrucchio through the divorce courts for mental cruelty?
mental eye n. one's imagination; frequently in plural and in figurative context.
ΚΠ
1661 O. Felltham Lett. xvii. 88 in Resolves (rev. ed.) The other were Visions, and not perspicable with corporal but mental eyes.
1702 C. Beaumont J. Beaumont's Psyche (new ed.) xi. clxxiii. 174 Darkness ne'r sate so thick on Egypt's brow, As on the mental eyes of Judas now.
1728 A. Pope Dunciad iii. 39 For this, our Queen unfolds to vision true Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view.
1837 Biblical Repertory Oct. 526 Throwing open the gates of other worlds, that the beams of immortal truth may pour down in all their brightness upon the mental eye.
1990 J. Yeovil Krokodil Tears (BNC) 47 It took a peculiar collection of qualities to catch his mental eye.
mental handicap n. a condition in which the intellectual capacity of a person is permanently lowered or underdeveloped to a degree that prevents normal function in society (the term is now increasingly avoided).
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the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > mental deficiency > [noun] > type of
idiotry1488
idiocy1607
cretinage1790
cretinism1791
infantilism1895
mongolism1899
mental handicap1912
1912 F. H. Danielson & C. B. Davenport Hill Folk vii. 19 Before adolescence half of the children from The Hill families show evidences of their mental handicap.
1947 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 16 475 There is an increasing tendency among educators to have secondary schools care for the adolescent pupil regardless of his mental handicap.
1971 Guardian 18 Oct. 10/3 Mental illness is an illness needing therapeutic treatment... Mental handicap..is an innate condition for which there is no cure.
1994 Daily Tel. 29 July 3/2 He is backward, he has a low IQ and a degree of mental handicap.
mental healer n. a practitioner of mental healing.
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the world > health and disease > healing > healer > alternative practitioner > [noun] > using mind power
mind-curer1856
mental healer1885
suggestionist1896
mind-healer1905
psychotherapeutist1905
psychic surgeon1975
1885 Times 26 May 3/1 The ‘wonderful cures’ of the mental healers have been so persistently proclaimed that a large proportion of average Bostonians are willing at least to admit that ‘there is something in it’.
1970 T. S. Szasz Ideol. & Insanity (1973) xiii. 240 The precise activities of the various ‘mental healers’ are rarely defined by their practitioners.
mental healing n. healing effected solely by the mental powers of the healer.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > non-scientific treatments > [noun] > treatment by psychical influence
mind-healing1826
psychopathy1851
mind cure1855
phrenopathy1855
psychotherapeutics1872
mental healing1885
suggestion1887
psychotherapy1892
psychotherapeutica1901
1885 Times 26 May 3/1 The science of mental healing..is the ambitious name of the movement which its leaders have assumed.
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience iv. 121 Their savage and primitive philosophy of mental healing.
1924 J. Galsworthy White Monkey I. xii. 100 No need of any of these vitamins, false teeth, mental healing.
mental health n. health of the mind as distinct from physical health; the condition of a person or group in respect of the functioning of the mind; the branch of medicine that deals with this; frequently attributive.
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the world > health and disease > mental health > [noun]
healthc1000
in witc1000
i-mindOE
mindc1380
reasonc1405
wit-state?c1450
common sense1536
sense1536
senses1540
soundness1548
sanitya1616
wisdoma1616
mental health?1650
saneness1727
mens sana1853
balance1856
lucidity1874
clear-headedness1882
?1650 T. Jordan Claraphil & Clarinda sig. B8 Virtue is a Virgins Wealth, The Magazine of mental Health.
1795 C. Lloyd Poems Var. Subj. 104 I'll be thy guest, and give thee mental health.
1833 J. S. Mill Lett. (1910) I. 38 I..am so far from being in better mental health than yourself, that I need sympathy quite as much.
1946 C. P. Blacker (title) Neurosis and the mental health services.
1972 R. Quilty Tenth Session 58 A lifetime in mental-health nursing.
1991 S. Forward Obsessive Love i. 58 The persistence and depth of Hal's unfounded jealousy and suspicion suggested the possibility of what mental health professionals call a ‘paranoid personality disorder’.
mental health break n. originally North American time taken off work or school for rest or recuperation, which is claimed as sick leave.
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1979 Washington Post (Nexis) 11 June b5 Try to get out regularly with your husband or by yourself for a mental-health break.
1999 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 18 June In a world where everyone has sick days, personal leave and mental health breaks, 12 years of perfect attendance is a rare feat.
mental health day n. originally North American a day taken off work or school for rest or recuperation, esp. one claimed as sick leave.
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1978 U.S. News & World Rep. 13 Mar. 80/1 Nurses..talk over their grief after the death of a patient. ‘If someone needs a “mental-health day”, to get back on an even keel, they get it.’
1995 Toronto Star 1 Apr. 20 Many of today's employees take ‘mental health’ days off work, disguised as sick days.
mental hospital n. a hospital or institution where people with mental disorders are treated; a psychiatric hospital.Now somewhat dated, and sometimes avoided as being potentially offensive.
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the world > health and disease > healing > places for the sick or injured > [noun] > hospital or infirmary > hospital for the mentally ill
bedlam-house1525
dull-house1622
madhouse1649
bedlam1663
lunatic hospital1762
asylum1776
retreat1796
lunatic house1813
lunatic asylum1828
maison de santé1843
idiot asylum1848
rat house1854
bughouse1887
Colney Hatch1891
booby hatch1896
mental hospital1898
booby house1900
nut factory1900
nut collegec1906
nuthouse1906
monkey house1910
booby-hutch1914
nuttery1915
loony bin1919
nut hatch1928
silly house1930
bin1938
snake-pit1947
funny farm1950
1898 H. Morten Compl. Syst. Nursing 249 A year's training in a general hospital, and two years' training in a mental hospital, would be the proper scheme to turn out the best mental nurse.
1964 Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads 18 The discharged mental-hospital patient..with a certificate to prove that he was sane.
1988 S. Bellow Theft 91 They're like patients who drift in and out of the mental hospital.
mental hygiene n. mental health; measures directed towards the preservation of mental health.
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the world > health and disease > mental health > [noun] > mental hygiene
mental hygiene1843
1843 W. Sweetser (title) Mental hygiene; or, an examination of the intellect and passions.
1902 B. Russell Let. in A. Wood B. Russell (1957) viii. 79 Since I finished my book, I have devoted myself to what you [sc. Beatrice Webb] would call mental hygiene, with good results so far. Beyond reading a mathematical MS. of Whitehead's, I have done no work for the last fortnight, but have spent my whole days out of doors basking in the return of summer.
1957 S. H. Kraines Mental Depressions xv. 422 The goal of such mental hygiene is to remove and correct those unhealthy attitudes which add to the physically based tension.
1973 Black World May 7/1 A crucial matter here is the role The Black Church can play in our mental hygiene and group advancement.
mental illness n. a condition which causes serious abnormality in a person's thinking or behaviour, esp. one requiring special care or treatment; a psychiatric illness.Now somewhat dated, and sometimes avoided as being potentially offensive.
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the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [noun]
craze1534
morbidness1668
mental illness1788
psychopathy1847
phrenopathy1853
1788 Trifler No. 15. 201 If Religion had ever shed her kind influence on his youthful mind, it might have proved a balm to heal the last rent of his mental illness.
1847 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights I. xiv. 347 I thought..it might create a favourable crisis in Catherine's mental illness.
1922 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 85 361 The lengthiest periods are on account of..nervous and mental illness.
1962 E. Cleaver in Negro Hist. Bull. 25 127/2 The continued application of these judgments is the cause of an untold amount of mental illness and frustration.
1991 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 Mar. 573/1 The responsibility for care of..patients with severe mental illness (schizophrenia and other psychoses) was shared.
mental note n. something consigned to memory, esp. as requiring attention at a later date; chiefly in to make a mental note.
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1848 Southern Literary Messenger 14 632/1 Henry was busily engaged in making mental notes and observations on all he saw and heard.
1876 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Tom Sawyer iii. 41 Tom turned in without the added vocation of prayers, and Sid made mental note of the omission.
1929 Liverpool Daily Courier 4 Sept. 9/1 If half the members of a Talkie audience shudder every time a character on the screen says..‘It's in the bag’, the other half make a mental note of the expression for future use.
1994 New Yorker 21 Feb. 106/1 Orton had already made a mental note to hot up the new play.
mental patient n. a person under medical care for a mental illness; a psychiatric patient.Now somewhat dated, and sometimes avoided as being potentially offensive.
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the world > health and disease > healing > patient > [noun] > others
private patient1754
panel patient1913
mental patient1916
inactivator1957
responaut1964
gomer1972
1916 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 174 528/2 (heading) After-care of mental patients.
1938 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. 29 37 The implications of Wiersma's results obtained from mental patients have therefore been shown to hold for normal subjects.
1970 ‘T. Coe’ Wax Apple (1973) iv. 33 The majority of mental patients who have been hospitalized once will be hospitalized several times more.
1973 ‘D. Shannon’ No Holiday for Crime (1974) iv. 61 If you're going to say a mental patient, I don't think it was that kind of hospital.
1990 N.Y. Times 17 Aug. b1/1 Their residents are mainly former mental patients or poor people unable to care for themselves.
mental ratio n. = intelligence quotient n.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > [noun] > measured degree of intelligence
intelligence quotient1913
G1915
mental ratio1921
I.Q.1922
1921 C. L. Burt Mental & Scholastic Tests ii. 151 If a child's mental age be divided by his chronological age, the quotient will state what fraction of ability the child actually possesses...This fraction may be termed..the child's ‘intelligence quotient’ or, more euphoniously.., his ‘mental ratio’.
1927 A. Huxley Proper Stud. 67 A mental ratio is obtained by dividing the child's mental by his chronological age.
1934 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. 24 312 Not all candidates with high mental ratios succeed.
mental reservation n. [compare post-classical Latin reservatio mentalis (1380, c1620 in British sources)] a qualification tacitly added in making a statement, taking an oath, etc., when it is thought inadvisable to express open dissent; (also) the fact or practice of making such qualifications.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > keeping from knowledge > hidden or indirect meaning > [noun] > mental reservation
mental reservation1606
restriction1607
precision1683
mentals1712
the mind > attention and judgement > testing > attestation, witness, evidence > qualification > [noun] > instance of > in the mind only
mental reservation1606
restriction1607
reserve1690
1606 W. Warner Continuance Albions Eng. xv. xcv. 380 Tongues-Othes, Harts-Thoughts, Disiunctiues, by a Mental reseruation.
1629 J. Wadsworth Eng. Spanish Pilgrime ii. 10 They did it with a mentall reseruation.
1690 N. Lee Massacre of Paris ii. i. 12 Without the smallest Mental Reservation, Equivocation, or the least Reserve.
1716 J. Addison Freeholder No. 6. ⁋5 We expressly disavow all evasions and mental reservations whatsoever.
1888 J. Rickaby Moral Philos. 233 This looks very much like lying, but..it is speaking the truth under a broad mental reservation.
1985 W. Sheed Frank & Maisie v. 94 Mental reservation is a sly theological concept whose outward sign..is keeping one's fingers crossed.
mental restriction n. see restriction n. 4.
mental set n. the set (set n.1 12) or predisposition of the mind which governs reactions to stimuli; a person's mindset.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > experimental psychology > stimulus-response > response > [noun] > predisposition
set1890
mental set1909
1909 Psychol. Rev. 16 296 The point of interest is the possible revelation of the ‘mental set’ even when attention is not concentrated rigorously.
1922 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. iv. 72 Much used also are ‘adjustment’ and ‘mental set’, the idea here being to liken the individual to an adjustable machine which can be set for one or another set of work.
1963 J. Lyons Struct. Semantics ii. 35 He [sc. the hearer] must be thought of as being in a certain state of ‘expectancy’ (or ‘mental set’), in which he is disposed to hear certain units rather than others.
1988 What Diet & Lifestyle Apr.–May 82/2 To start to enjoy exercise and receive its benefits, the first thing you must stretch is your mental outlook, or what psychologists call your ‘mental set’.
mental test n. = intelligence test n.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > test of mental ability > [noun]
psychometric test1889
mental test1890
Binet-Simon test1910
alpha test1918
Stanford–Binet1918
Wechsler1942
1890 J. M. Cattell in Mind 15 373 Psychology cannot attain the certainty and exactness of the physical sciences, unless it rests on a foundation of experiment and measurement. A step in this direction could be made by applying a series of mental tests and measurements to a large number of individuals.
1958 J. M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour vi. 58 A child's mental age is the average chronological age of children showing the same degree of intelligence, as measured by mental tests.
1995 Newsday 7 Feb. b26/1 On mental tests, they tend to score six years older than those with few risk factors.
mental tester n. a person who tests mental capacity; a psychometrist.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > test of mental ability > act of testing > [noun] > setter of tests
mental tester1917
intelligence tester1919
1917 Philos. Rev. 26 49 It is often said of the mental tester that he does not know half the time what he is testing.
1952 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. 43 23 When the subjects are in full sympathy..but the mental tester rarely has such a favourable situation.
1994 National Rev. 12 Sept. 78 The historical record reveals that the majority of early mental testers were engaged in a legitimate scientific enterprise.
mental testing n. the activity of a mental tester; psychometry.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > test of mental ability > act of testing > [noun]
intelligence testing1914
mental testing1916
1916 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 13 73 Psychological diagnosis requires thorough technical training in phases of mental testing.
1932 Psychol. Exchange 1 11 The deserving psychometrists are often not discriminated from those who have just taken up mental testing.
1959 Chambers's Encycl. XII. 655/1 Mental testing began with the testing of intelligence (i.e. of general intellectual capacity).
1993 Guardian 9 Sept. ii. 15/4 He never, however, became a wholehearted comprehensivist, for reasons which went back to his mental testing days.
mental year n. the average mental attainment of each year of a child's growth, used as a unit of measurement of mental development.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > [noun] > degree of mental development > at each year of growth
mental year1919
1919 Biometrika 12 369 I find the coefficient of variation in intelligence as measured in mental years to be 19·476.
1942 F. J. Schonell Backwardness in Basic Subj. iv. 74 Rene C. was, in arithmetic, almost two mental years ahead of her achievements in reading.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
mentaladj.2
/ˈmɛntl/, U.S. /ˈmɛn(t)l/ 1. Anatomy and Zoology. Of or relating to the chin (see mentum n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > head and neck > [adjective] > of the jaw or chin
mental1727
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > chin > [adjective]
mental1727
genial1828
genian1830
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Mental, belonging to the Chin.
1829 J. Bell & C. Bell Anat. & Physiol. Human Body (ed. 7) I. 159 The second hole in the lower jaw..is named the mental hole.
1853 S. F. Baird & C. Girard Catal. N. Amer. Reptiles Introd. 7 The inframaxillary or mental scutellæ or shields.
1866 T. H. Huxley in S. Laing Pre-hist. Remains Caithness 91 The lower jaw has a well developed mental prominence.
1890 E. Coues Handbk. Field & Gen. Ornithol. ii. 144 Mental or gular lines.
1920 H. H. Wilder Lab. Man. Anthropometry i. i. 47 Pogonian (pg), the most projecting median point of the chin, on the anterior surface (mental process).
1954 Man 54 69/1 Other important vertical elements apparent in the skull are also represented, as..the nasal spine and mental protuberance.
1980 Gray's Anat. (ed. 36) iii. 316/2 The lower margin of the mental foramen is sharp and the mental nerve is directed upwards and backwards as it emerges from the bone.
2000 Exper. Brain Res. 132 306 Non-painful electrical stimuli were applied to the right mental nerve.
2. Zoology. Of or relating to a chin-like part; (Entomology) of or relating to the mentum (mentum n. 2).
ΚΠ
1906 J. B. Smith Explan. Terms Entomol. Mental suture, in Coleoptera, the line between mentum and gula.
1941 Amer. Midland Naturalist 26 537 A few marginal mental spinules.
1977 O. W. Richards & R. G. Davies Imms's Gen. Textbk. Entomol. (ed. 10) II. 454 The labium [of Protura] comprises an elongate, basal submentum and paired mental and premental sclerites.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1n.?c1422
adj.21727