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Uncanny
//ʌnˈkæni// adj, noun
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird.
"He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor."
- 2 Careless. UK, dialectal
Adjective
- 1 suggesting the operation of supernatural influences wordnet
- 2 surpassing the ordinary or normal wordnet
Noun
- 1 Something that is simultaneously familiar and strange, typically leading to feelings of discomfort.
"This uncontrollable possibility—the possibility of a certain loss of control—can, perhaps, explain why the uncanny remains a marginal notion even within psychoanalysis itself."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From un- + canny; thus “beyond one's ken,” or outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions. Compare Middle English unkanne (“unknown”). In the noun sense a translation of Sigmund Freud's usage of German unheimlich (Das Unheimliche, 1919).
Etymology 2
From un- + canny; thus “beyond one's ken,” or outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions. Compare Middle English unkanne (“unknown”). In the noun sense a translation of Sigmund Freud's usage of German unheimlich (Das Unheimliche, 1919).
See also for "uncanny"
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