psychopomp
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of psychopomp
First recorded in 1860–65, psychopomp is from the Greek word psȳchopompós conductor of souls. See psycho-, pomp
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.
"It could also reflect a further change in ritual practice, with an animal taking on the role of a psychopomp, a symbolic helper in the journey to the afterlife," added Molinero Polo.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
That’s when he is greeted, in a kind of nightclub limbo, by Chimney Man — so called because this forbidding psychopomp, played by the fascinatingly strict Billy Porter, sweeps souls to their destination.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
Well, really two, if you count the supernatural one: a psychopomp, or collector of souls of the recently dead.
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
In my early 20s, while trapped on a family vacation, I read The Dark Half, which taught me a word I have never forgotten: psychopomp.
From Time ● Nov. 2, 2011
The winds were now the maruts, or spirits of the breeze, serving Indra, the sky-god; again they were the great psychopomp himself.
From British Goblins Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes
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.
