psychometrize · verb — to discover information about an object's past, or past owners, merely by handling it. It carries an Arena rating of 1502, earned across 38 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, psychometrize ranks #1,549 of 17,171 for Scariest Words, #1,739 of 17,177 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,623 of 17,163 for Most Sublime Words, #2,644 of 17,201 for Funniest Words.
Why “psychometrize” is a great word
PSYCHOMETRIZE — [Verb] To discover information about an object’s past or its previous owners through physical contact, as in the occult practice of psychometry. From psychometry (from Greek psykhē, "soul, mind" + metron, "measure") + -ize (verb-forming suffix). First attested in 1860 in the writing of A. J. Davis. Unlike "intuit" (which suggests a disembodied, instinctual knowing) or "appraise" (which denotes a clinical, secular valuation), to psychometrize is to seek a ghostly ledger inscribed in matter itself. It is the press of a palm against a cold locket to taste a stranger’s grief, the cradling of a rusted pistol to hear a long-silenced argument, and the tracing of a crack in a teacup to witness the precise moment it was dropped—a tactile yearning to make inert matter speak its accrued biography, and to measure the soul-stuff it has absorbed.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From psychometry + -ize.
verb
- To discover information about an object's past, or past owners, merely by handling it.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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