mesmerism

From French mesmérisme, analysable as Mesmer +‎ -ism; so called after Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), a German physician who developed the animal magnetism theory.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛz.məˌɹɪz.əm/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛz.mɚˌɪz.əm/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmez.məˌɹɪz.əm/

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• Hyphenation: mes‧mer‧ism

mesmerism (countable and uncountable, plural mesmerisms)

1. The method or power of gaining control over someone's personality or actions, as in hypnosis or suggestion.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 23, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     What is the secret mesmerism which friendship possesses, and under the operation of which a person ordinarily sluggish, or cold, or timid, becomes wise, active, and resolute, in another's behalf?

2. The state induced by hypnotic methods (especially that of Mesmer himself).
   • 2010, Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, volume 2, page 302:

     ...the fact stood proven that I had seen it in my vision. Lawks! ...When the magician's engagement closed there was but one person in the village who did not believe in mesmerism, and I was the one. All the others were converted, but I was to remain an implacable and unpersuadable disbeliever in mesmerism and hypnotism for close upon fifty years.

• mesmeric
• mesmerist
• mesmerize
• mesmerized
• mesmerizing

• hypnosis
• somnolism

• “mesmerism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “mesmerism”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from French mesmérisme.

mesmerism n (uncountable)

1. mesmerism