Mediumistic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the practice of engaging with supernatural entities through a conduit or intermediary for purposes of communication or insight
2. Describing abilities or methods used to facilitate contact with otherworldly forces or spirits, often for divination or guidance
3. Relating to the abilities or practices associated with receiving messages from spirits or entities beyond the physical world for insight or knowledge

Etymology: "Mediumistic" is built from "medium," used in the sense of a person who claims to channel spirits, plus the adjective-forming suffix "-istic," which turns a noun into a description of its qualities. Together they yield a word for anything relating to a medium or to the practices associated with mediums. The base noun carries the older and more interesting history. Its spiritualist sense developed from the Latin "medium," meaning "middle" or "intermediate," which is also the source of the everyday sense of something that stands between two things. A spiritualist medium was imagined as the middle point between the living and the dead, a channel through which messages passed. The word came to English through that Latin root, so the spiritual sense is a specialised extension of a simple spatial idea. "Mediumistic" therefore describes the abilities, methods, or claims of such intermediaries. The suffix "-istic" is ordinary English, so the word's interest lies almost entirely in the noun it grows from.