ギリシャ語のpsykhe, spirit, soul, psycheから、psykhein, to breathe, to blowから、PIE*bhes, to breathe, to blowから、おそらくオノマトペから。
英語の語源
psyche
psyche: [17] Like Latin animus (source of English animal), Greek psūkhé started out meaning ‘breath’ and developed semantically to ‘soul, spirit’. English adopted it via Latin psychē in the mid-17th century, but it did not really begin to come into its own until the middle of the 19th century, when the development of the sciences of the mind saw it pressed into service in such compound forms as psychology (first recorded in 1693, but not widely used until the 1830s) and psychiatry (first recorded in 1846), which etymologically means ‘healing of the mind’. => psychiatry, psychology
psyche (n.)
1640s, "animating spirit," from Latin psyche, from Greek psykhe "the soul, mind, spirit; breath; life, one's life, the invisible animating principle or entity which occupies and directs the physical body; understanding" (personified as Psykhe, the beloved of Eros), akin to psykhein "to blow, cool," from PIE root *bhes- "to blow, to breathe" (source also of Sanskrit bhas-), "Probably imitative" [Watkins].
Also in ancient Greek, "departed soul, spirit, ghost," and often represented symbolically as a butterfly or moth. The word had extensive sense development in Platonic philosophy and Jewish-influenced theological writing of St. Paul (compare spirit (n.)). Meaning "human soul" is from 1650s. In English, psychological sense "mind," is attested by 1910.
例文
1. His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche .
彼はこの神話の探求に対してアメリカ人の心理を明らかにした。
2.He portrays the psyche as poly-centric.
は彼の描写の中で精神が多中心である。
3.She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche .
彼女は生涯を通じて人間の心の奥義を探求した。
4.She knew，at some deep level of her psyche ，that what she was doing was wrong.
彼女は心の奥底で自分が間違ったことをしていたことを知っていた。
5."It probably shows up a deeply immature part of my psyche ，"he confesses.