anankastic

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀναγκαστικός (anankastikós), from ἀναγκάζω (anankázō, “to force, to compel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ænənˈkæstɪk/

Adjective

anankastic (comparative more anankastic, superlative most anankastic)

1. (linguistics) Imperative, as in the anankastic conditional.
2. (psychology) Characterised by compulsion; obsessive-compulsive.
   • 1991: ‘You’re a classic anal-retentive,’ he says, ‘tirelessly absorbed by minutiae, anankastic in the extreme – it’s lucky you have me to deal with the broad sweep of things, to do the abstract thinking.’ — Will Self, ‘Mono-Cellular’, The Quantity Theory of Insanity

Noun

anankastic (plural anankastics)

1. (psychology, rare) An obsessive-compulsive individual.
   • 2012, Matthew R. Broome, The Maudsley Reader in Phenomenological Psychiatry, page 235:

     Like many anankastics, he suffers from a disturbance in the capacity to act, which is revealed especially as an impediment to beginning something new and completing something.