Psychiatrist

How to spell psychiatrist

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce psychiatrist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does psychiatrist mean?

1. nounA medical doctor who specialises in diagnosing and treating mental illness, and who can prescribe medication.

Psychiatrist in a sentence

• Her doctor referred her to a psychiatrist for the persistent anxiety.

• The psychiatrist reviewed his medication before adjusting the dose.

Where does psychiatrist come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is built from two Greek elements: psyche, meaning 'soul', 'breath', or 'mind', and iatros, meaning 'healer' or 'physician'. The combining form -iatry, denoting medical treatment, sits at the heart of the related noun 'psychiatry', which was coined in German as Psychiatrie by the physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808 to name the medical treatment of the mind. English took the term over in the nineteenth century, and 'psychiatrist', the practitioner, followed as the field became an established branch of medicine. The same psyche root powers a whole family of English words, including 'psychology', 'psyche', and 'psychic', while the iatros root resurfaces in 'pediatrician' and 'geriatric'. The notorious spelling trap is the silent opening 'p' followed by the Greek 'ch' for a hard 'k' sound, both fossil traces of the original Greek that no longer match how the word is pronounced.

How the word is built

• psych- (from Greek psyche: mind, soul)
• -iatr- (from Greek iatros: healer, physician)
• -ist (one who practises)