uncanny

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From un- +‎ canny; thus “beyond one's ken,” or outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈkæni/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æni

Adjective

uncanny (comparative uncannier, superlative uncanniest)

1. Strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird.

   He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.

2. (UK dialectal) Careless.

Noun

uncanny

1. (psychology, psychoanalysis, Freud) Something that is simultaneously familiar and strange, typically leading to feelings of discomfort; translation of Freud's usage of the German "unheimlich" (literally "unsecret").
   • 2011, Espen Dahl, Hans-Gunter Heimbrock, In Between: The Holy Beyond Modern Dichotomies, page 99:

     [The uncanny is] something that was long familiar to the psyche and was estranged from it only through being repressed. The link with repression now illuminates Schelling′s definition of the uncanny as ‘something that should have remained hidden and has come into the open.’ (Freud: 2003, 147 f)

   • 2003, Nicholas Royle, The Uncanny, page 1 [1]:

     The uncanny involves feelings of uncertainty, in particular regarding the reality of who one is and what is being experienced.

   • 2011, Anneleen Masschelein, The Unconcept: The Freudian Uncanny in Late-Twentieth-Century Theory, page 2 [2]:

     Because the uncanny affects and haunts everything, it is in constant transformation and cannot be pinned down.

   • 2001, Diane Jonte-Pace, Speaking the Unspeakable, page 81 [3]:

     In the preceding chapter, we saw that Freud linked the maternal body, death, and the afterlife with the uncanny in his famous essay "The Uncanny" ("Das Unheimliche").

   • 1982, Samuel Weber, The Legend of Freud, page 20 [4]:

     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.

   • 2005, Barbara Creed, Phallic Panic, page vii [5]:

     Freud argued that the uncanny was particularly associated with feelings of horror aroused by the figure of the paternal castrator, neglecting the tropes of woman and animal as a source of the uncanny.

   • 1994, Sonu Shamdasani and Michael Münchow, Speculations after Freud, page 186 [6]:

     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.

Usage notes

In common modern usage, "canny" and "uncanny" are no longer antonyms, although they are not synonyms.

Derived terms

• uncanny valley
• uncannily

Translations

strange, mysteriously unsettling

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 诡异 (zh) (guǐyì)

• Czech: podivný (cs) m, záhadný (cs) m, zvláštní (cs) m, zlověstný m, tajemný (cs) m, tajuplný m
• Danish: uhyggelig
• Dutch: griezelig (nl), mysterieus (nl)
• Finnish: outo (fi), hämmästyttävä (fi)
• French: déroutant (fr) m, déroutante (fr) f, étrange (fr), troublant (fr)
• German: unheimlich (de), gruselig (de), seltsam (de), verstörend (de)
• Greek: αλλόκοτος (el) (allókotos), απόκοσμος (el) (apókosmos)

  Ancient: ἀλλόκοτος (allókotos)

• Hungarian: különös (hu), kísérteties (hu), rejtélyes (hu), nyugtalanító (hu), hátborzongató (hu)
• Icelandic: óhugnanlegur (is), kynlegur (is), dularfullur (is), undarlegur (is), skuggalegur (is),
• Italian: bizzarro (it) m, strano (it), sconcertante (it), curioso (it), inquietante (it), angosciante (it), sinistro (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 不気味な (ぶきみな, bukimi na)
• Maori: tupua, autaia
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uhyggelig

• Occitan: estranh (oc)
• Portuguese: estranho (pt)
• Romanian: bizar (ro)
• Russian: сверхъесте́ственный (ru) (sverxʺjestéstvennyj), жу́ткий (ru) (žútkij)
• Spanish: inquietante, desconcertante, extraño (es), siniestro (es)
• Swedish: underlig (sv)
• Ukrainian: моторошний (motorošnyj)

a Freudian concept

• German: unheimliche (de)
• Italian: perturbante (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: perturbador