Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A morally irresponsible person.
Wiktionary
- n. A person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, cunning, manipulating, glibness, exploiting, heedlessness, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, sexual promiscuity, low self-control, disregard for morality, lack of acceptance of responsibility, callousness, and lack of empathy and remorse. Such an individual may be especially prone to violent and criminal offenses.
- n. A person diagnosed with antisocial or dissocial personality disorder.
- n. A person who has no moral conscience.
- n. A person who perpetrates especially gruesome or bizarre violent acts.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone with a sociopathic personality; a person with an antisocial personality disorder (`psychopath' was once widely used but has now been superseded by `sociopath')
Etymologies
- From German psychopatisch, from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psyche, "soul") + πάθος (pathos, "suffering"). (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from psychopathic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Thus, I propose that the medical community move to formally and exclusively resurrect the term psychopath where the honor is due, if only for basic public health and safety purposes.”
“Now, officially, psychiatrists don ` t use the term psychopath anymore.”
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
“Several of the 20 items require the examiner to rate personality traits that we historically think of when we use the term "psychopath," such as whether the person shows a lack of remorse or guilt, appears callous, seems superficially charming, and has an inflated sense of self-worth i.e., the personality component.”
“My primary reservation about using the PCL-R in the criminal justice system is that research suggests its personality component and the label "psychopath" are highly stigmatizing, evoking images of fictional villains like Hannibal Lecter as well as real-world serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer.”
“We should remember, however, that the term psychopath is a concept, one not necessarily fully present in reality.”
“No, given the stature of psychopaths like Hitler, Stalin, and Ted Bundy, Bill Clinton is not in the same league nor should he have his image inset next to the term psychopath in the dictionary.”
“Though we prefer to use the term psychopath to refer to those born lacking a healthy emotional substratum that renders human morality and conscience active in individuals, we agree that the condition is becoming an epidemic in our days and suggest the following books to anyone interested in educating themselves on the subject:”
“Does Senator Sessions not know that the defining trait of a psychopath is a total lack of empathy?”
Senators signal fierce ideological debate in Sotomayor hearings
“The pathological lying just fits together with a lot of what you called a psychopath and a drama queen.”
“Well, after her father's documentary which likens the royal family to "gangsters in tiaras" and Prince Philip was referred to as a "psychopath," Lily looks unlikely to ever being invited to any future royal events.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘psychopath’.
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Reading materials
psychopath, malinger, feign, psychiatry, yawn, stripe, pinstripe, sane, hallucination, glib, grandiose, adept and 5 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
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-path
practitioner of curative treatment; sufferer from a disease
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MY WORDS
egoist, entomologists, egotist, altruist, introvert, extrovert, ambivert, misanthrope, misogynist, misogamist, ascetic, Altruism and 193 more...
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X-Files
Words that i associate with the X-Files. either as episode titles or through the fandom and atxf. Suggestions welcome!
lone gunmen, epistaxis, homoerotic, quagmire, enigmatic, epiphany, surly, syzygy, anomaly, bee, tasty, psychopath and 31 more...
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Learn from Andy
psychopath, sycophant, rube goldberg, dark heart, bogus, introvert, extravert, extrovert, buffoon, goofed, put your foot in ..., melanoma and 15 more...
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10th Grade Unit 11 (PATH)
sympathy, psychopath, pathos, pathological, pathogen, empathy, apathy, antipathy
Tweets
Looking for tweets for psychopath.
oroboros How crazy people get through the forest? Jan 6, 2010
gangerh Son, this is the United States of America. Some would say it's unconstitutional to try to prevent psychopaths from fulfilling their potential.
From 'Odd Thomas' by Dean Koontz. Oct 3, 2009