cryptomnesia

English

WOTD – 18 September 2024

Etymology

From crypto- (“hidden”) +‎ (a)mnesia, modelled after French cryptomnésie,^[1] which was coined by the Swiss psychologist Théodore Flournoy (1854–1920) in his work Des Indes à la planète Mars (From India to the Planet Mars, 1899 or 1900).^[2]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɹɪp.tə(ʊ)mˈniː.zi.ə/, /-ʒə/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɹɪp.təmˈni.ʒi.ə/, /-ʒə/, /-zi.ə/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -iːziə
Hyphenation: cryp‧to‧mnes‧ia

Noun

cryptomnesia (uncountable)

(chiefly psychology) The phenomenon of the reappearance of a long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience.
- 1900, Th[éodore] Flournoy, “The Hindoo Cycle”, in Daniel B. Vermilye, transl., From India to the Planet Mars: A Study of a Case of Somnambulism with Glossolalia, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 276:
  All the witnesses of Mlle. Smith's Hindoo somnambulisms who are of the same opinion on that subject (several refrain from having any) unite in seeing in it a curious phenomenon of cryptomnesia, of reappearances of memories profoundly buried beneath the normal waking state, together with an indeterminate amount of imaginative exaggeration upon the canvas of actual facts. But by this name of cryptomnesia or resurrection of latent memories, two singularly different things are understood.

Alternative forms

cryptamnesia

Derived terms

Translations

phenomenon of the reappearance of long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience

Arabic: استرجاع إبداعي ?
Armenian: կրիպտոմնեզիա (hy) (kriptomnezia)
Asturian: criptomnesia
Azerbaijani: kriptomneziya
Catalan: criptomnèsia f
Danish: kryptomnesi ?
Finnish: kryptomnesia
French: cryptomnésie (fr) f
Galician: please add this translation if you can
German: Kryptomnesie (de) f
Hebrew: קריפטומנזיה ?
Indonesian: kriptomnesia
Persian: کریپتومنسیا
Polish: kryptomnezja ?
Portuguese: criptomnésia f
Romanian: criptomnezia ?
Russian: криптомнези́я (ru) f (kriptomnezíja)
Slovene: kryptomnézia ?
Spanish: criptomnesia (es) f
Tajik: криптомнезия (kriptomneziya)
Turkish: kriptomnezi
Ukrainian: криптомнезія f (kryptomnezija)

References

^ “cryptomnesia, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “cryptomnesia, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
^ Des Indes à la planète Mars : Etude sur un cas de somnambulisme avec glossolalie : Avec 44 figures [From India to the Planet Mars: Study of a Case of Sleepwalking with Glossolalia: With 44 Figures], [Geneva; Paris?]: [Atar Fischbacher?], 1899 or 1900.