Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective medicine Prepathological; lying between normal and pathological.
  • adjective Having previously been thought to be a paranormal phenomenon, but having since been scientifically verified as natural.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From peri- "near-" and normal, by analogy with paranormal. In sense 2, apparently coined by Richard Dawkins, though he does not claim to have been its sole originator.

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Examples

  • As author Ted Dace wrote in reviewing that conference,24 when Dawkins was asked about one of the prizes offered for demonstrations of the paranormal, he responded: “About the million dollar prize, I would be worried if I were you because of the fact that we have perinormal possibilities.”

    ENTANGLED MINDS DEAN RADIN 2006

  • Such transitional phenomena are called the “perinormal,” meaning near-normal, by fiercely skeptical Cambridge University zoologist Richard Dawkins.

    ENTANGLED MINDS DEAN RADIN 2006

  • As author Ted Dace wrote in reviewing that conference,24 when Dawkins was asked about one of the prizes offered for demonstrations of the paranormal, he responded: “About the million dollar prize, I would be worried if I were you because of the fact that we have perinormal possibilities.”

    ENTANGLED MINDS DEAN RADIN 2006

  • Such transitional phenomena are called the “perinormal,” meaning near-normal, by fiercely skeptical Cambridge University zoologist Richard Dawkins.

    ENTANGLED MINDS DEAN RADIN 2006

  • Such transitional phenomena are called the “perinormal,” meaning near-normal, by fiercely skeptical Cambridge University zoologist Richard Dawkins.

    ENTANGLED MINDS DEAN RADIN 2006

  • As author Ted Dace wrote in reviewing that conference,24 when Dawkins was asked about one of the prizes offered for demonstrations of the paranormal, he responded: “About the million dollar prize, I would be worried if I were you because of the fact that we have perinormal possibilities.”

    ENTANGLED MINDS DEAN RADIN 2006

Comments

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  • Around normal. Not normal, but not abnormal either.

    May 3, 2008

  • Not to be confused with paranormal. ;-)

    May 3, 2008