Sunday Word: Preternatural

[sallymn]

preternatural [pree-ter-nach-er-uhl, -nach-ruhl, pre-]

adjective:
1 existing outside of nature
2 exceeding what is natural or regular, extraordinary
3 that does not seem natural; inexplicable by ordinary means

(A comparison of he words preternatural and supernatural is here.)

Examples:

The novel is most successful when it marries its depressive elements with the hallucinatory. When Cicada meets the Whale, he is consumed by a sudden, preternatural melancholy, 'saturated with black fluid' as a 'gelatinous sorrow spreads through his chest, then his head.' (Ian Wang, The Heady Nihilism of Kotaro Isaka, New York Times, August 2022)

The novel is most successful when it marries its depressive elements with the hallucinatory. When Cicada meets the Whale, he is consumed by a sudden, preternatural melancholy, 'saturated with black fluid' as a 'gelatinous sorrow spreads through his chest, then his head.' (Andy Hoglund, Fred Armisen has a TV show. And a Grammy nomination. And a stand-up tour. He's not done yet., The Washington Post, February 2019)

When a character's good at something it's fun to read about them doing it. And the thing that they're good at doesn't necessarily have to be a physical skill, preternatural traits work too - we love Samwise Gamgee because he's preternaturally loyal or Hermione Grainger because of her preternatural intelligence. (Louise Morris, Brandon Sanderson's Best Advice For Writers, The Brave Writer, October 2020)

A ghost story, to be a good one, should unite, as much as possible, objects such as they are in life with a preternatural spirit. (Leigh Hunt, 'A Tale for a Chimney Corner')

The night remained preternaturally quiet there on the edge of the highway, absent the burr of distant engines or blatting horns, or the stark sweep of rushing headlights. The world had descended into a primeval well while she'd been partying in their motel room; it had slipped backward and now the desert truly was an ancient and haunted place. (Laird Barron, 'Occultation')

And when, afterwards, on those two successive evenings of all-heavenly delight, you passed to and fro about the room 0 now sitting by my side, now far away, now standing with your hand resting on the back of my chair, while the preternatural thrill of your touch vibrated even through the senseless wood into my heart. (James A Harrison, Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol 2)

Origin:

'beyond or different from what is natural', 1570s, from Medieval Latin preternaturalis (mid-13c), from Latin phrase praeter naturam (praeterque fatum) 'beyond nature (and beyond fate),' from praeter 'beyond, over, more than in quantity or degree' + accusative of natura 'nature'.

Used at least since 1770s in the sense of supernatural, but technically and properly distinct from that word. 'Preternatural is used especially to note that which might have been a work of nature, but is not' - Century Dictionary. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Preternatural derives from the Latin phrase praeter naturam, which means 'beyond nature'. Medieval Latin scholars rendered the term as praeternaturalis, and that form inspired the modern English version. Unusual things are sometimes considered positive and sometimes negative, and throughout its history preternatural has been used to refer to both exceptionally good things and unnaturally evil ones. In its earliest documented uses in the 1500s, it tended to emphasize the strange, ominous, or foreboding, but by the 1700s, people were using it more benignly to refer to fascinating supernatural (or even heavenly) phenomena. Nowadays, people regularly use it to describe the remarkable abilities of exceptional humans. (Merriam-Webster)

Comments

[calzephyr]

Good word! This is one of those words people use without always knowing the origin.

[sallymn]

I admit, I use a lot of words like that :)

This one came from my new book on Lovecraftian words, which I am enjoying so much.