uncanny
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L253483 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ʌnˈkæni/
adj
Etymology: 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).
- Strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird.
“He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.”
“An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful.”
- Careless.
noun
Etymology: 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).
- 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.”
“As is well known, Freud introduced the concept of the uncanny into psychoanalysis in 1919 and used The Sandman as a prime illustration for his definition.”