Where does “parapsychism” come from?

parapsychism (English) comes from English parapsychic, from English Pará, from Portuguese Pará, from Portuguese Pera, from Portuguese espera, from Portuguese esperar, from Old Portuguese asperar, from Old Spanish esperar — to succeed, to prosper.

parapsychism (English): ability

Definitions

  1. ability

Ancestry of “parapsychism”, step by step

parapsychism traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English parapsychic

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishparapsychicparapsychological; A person with a paranormal...
2EnglishParáA former subunit of currency in several countries in the Ottoman/Turkish and Yugoslav regions
3PortugueseParáa state in the North Region of Brazil
4PortuguesePerapear
5Portugueseesperawait
6Portugueseesperarto wait; to hope; to expect; to anticipate
7Old Portugueseasperar
8Old Spanishesperarto wait for, await
9Latinspērōto hope, expect
10Latinspeshope; expectation, anticipation, apprehension
11Proto-Italicspēshope
12Proto-Indo-Europeanspéh₁sprosperity, success
13Proto-Indo-Europeanspeh₁-to succeed, to prosper

via English ism

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishismAn ideology, system of thought, or practice that...
2English-ismUsed to form nouns of action or process or result...
3Latin-ismus-ism
4Ancient Greek-ισμόςForms abstract nouns
5Ancient Greek-μόςForms abstract nouns
6Proto-Indo-European-mósCreates action/result nouns from verb stems
Every word from Proto-Indo-European speh₁-