parahumanadj.n.
/ˌparaˈhjuːmən/, U.S. /ˌpɛrəˈ(h)jum(ə)n/ A. adj.
Of experience, achievement, etc.: beyond the human; surpassing that which is considered normal or usual for a human. Also, of a (real or hypothetical) being: not wholly human; subhuman or superhuman.
ΚΠ
1939 E. F. M. Durbin & J. Bowlby Personal Aggressiveness & War 13 [The cause of war] consists in the universal tendency to attribute all events in the world to the deliberate activity of human or para-human will.
1944 O. Stapledon Sirius iv. 52 It was at once human and ‘para-human’, so that she seemed to me not so much cat as fay.
1960 Encounter May 79/1 An obscene old woman who runs a gang of sub- or para-human creatures.
1985 I. Watson When Timegate Failed in J. Clute et al. Interzone: 2nd Anthol. (1987) 248 Hoffmann was the secret supervisor of this journey of ours, which wasn't just a journey across light years of void but also a trip into powerful, parahuman dimensions of the mind.
1993 Newsday (Nexis) 16 Apr. 68 Although some of the exhibits exalt Hendrix to parahuman heights, overall the show presents him straightforwardly enough as a potent artist and brilliant innovator.
B. n.
A human-like being; (also variously) a subhuman, a superhuman; a genetically modified or technologically enhanced human.
ΚΠ
1969 M. Hamilton in Christian Cent. 28 May 743/1 A more sinister venture remains; namely the growth in vitro of parahumans, sometimes called cyborgs.
1981 Washington Post (Nexis) 21 Aug. c1 ‘Parahumans’, evolved from an ancestor common with ours. In other words, a Missing Link.
1993 A. Toffler & H. Toffler War & Anti-war xiv. 122 The use of bioengineering or genetic engineering to alter soldiers or to breed ‘para-humans’ to do the fighting.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1939