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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

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English

mental

/ˈmɛn.təl/
Occurring or experienced in the mind.

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    • meaning component
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    Borrowing from Middle French mental, from Late Latin mentālis, from mēns (“mind, disposition; heart, soul”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

    Etymology 2

    c. 1727, from Latin mentum (“the chin”) + -al.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • partLatinmentum “chin”
    • suffixEnglish-y “Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of”, either “involving…”
      • inheritedMiddle English-y
        • derivedMiddle English-ie
        • inheritedOld English-iġ
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*-ōn
    • partEnglish-al “Of or pertaining to. Adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to produce an adject…”
      • inheritedMiddle English-al
        • borrowedOld French-al
        • borrowedOld French-el
        • borrowedLatin-ālis “-al”
      • derivedEnglishaldehyde “Any of a large class of reactive organic compounds (R·CHO) having a carbonyl functional group attac…”
        • borrowedGermanAldehyd
    • rootProto-Indo-European*men- “small”
    • borrowedMiddle Frenchmental
      • derivedLate Latinmentālis
        • partLatinmēns “mind, disposition; heart, soul”
          • inheritedProto-Italic*mentis
            • inheritedProto-Indo-European*méntis “thought”
          • derivedLatin-cīdium “act of killing or murder”
            • partLatin-cīda “cutter, killer”
            • partLatin-ium “forming abstract nouns”

    Meanings

    adj
    1. Occurring or experienced in the mind.
    2. Relating to the mind, its activity, or its products as an object of study.
    3. Of or relating to intellectual as contrasted with emotional activity.
    4. Of, relating to, or being intellectual as contrasted with overt physical activity.
    5. Relating to spirit or idea as opposed to matter.
    6. Of, relating to, or affected by a psychiatric disorder.
    noun
    1. State of mind; ellipsis of mental state.
    2. A mentally challenged person.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: mental