Unhypnotically

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Characterized by a state of consciousness that is not influenced by hypnotic suggestion
2. Referring to actions or thoughts occurring without the effects of hypnosis
3. Describing a mental condition in which one remains fully aware and alert, free from trance-like states

Etymology: "Unhypnotically" is a plain formation from English parts, with no foreign ancestry to trace. It combines "un-", a prefix meaning "not" that English has used since Old English, with "hypnotic," and the adverbial ending "-ally" that turns an adjective into an adverb. "Hypnotic" itself comes from "hypnotize," coined in the 1840s by the Scottish surgeon James Braid, who took the Greek "hypnos," meaning "sleep," and built the verb on it. Braid was not describing magic: he argued that the trance state came from the subject's own fixation on a single object, not from any mesmeric fluid, so the word was from the start a term for a physiological effect. The adverb is a modern formation, and dictionaries record it only sparingly, which is typical of words built from a productive prefix and suffix on a technical base. It means "without hypnotic influence," and its meaning follows directly from the parts: "un-" negates the adjective, and the adverbial ending describes the manner of the action.