phrenology
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of phrenology
Explanation
If you think that the shape of a person's head can tell you everything you need to know about him, you believe in phrenology, or the study of skulls. Phrenology is outdated today, but it was a popular area of study in the nineteenth century. It was considered a "pseudoscience," or false science, even at the time, yet phrenology was taken seriously by some psychiatrists and neurologists, who would feel a patient's head for bumps they believed revealed aspects of personality, character, and health. The literal Greek meaning of phrenology is "mental science," from the root word phrenos, or "mind."
Vocabulary lists containing phrenology
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Society and Solitude
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Lyddie
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Phrenology had a similar run of credibility; even some widely respected scientists thought the contours of a person’s cranium could be “read” for what it said about intelligence and character.
From Washington Post • Nov. 8, 2022
Phrenology, exclusionary college admission policies, Freud, inevitably, with his idea of character as the “outward sign, so to speak, of an inward personality” — there’s plenty to paddle around in, but do we arrive anywhere?
From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2020
Phrenology was a model that relied on pseudoscientific nonsense to make authoritative pronouncements, and for decades it went untested.
From The Guardian • Sep. 1, 2016
They were disappointed by its outcome, admitting that they “could have wished a better case for the introduction of the light of Phrenology, into the dark passages of our Criminal Law.”
From Slate • Dec. 16, 2015
Phrenology falls into disgrace, even though the Phrenologists were right about localization.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
