a. [SUPER- 4 a.]
1. Exceeding that which is normal.
1868. W. R. Greg, Lit. & Soc. Judgm., 356. This vast amount of super-normal celibacy.
1910. G. Tyrrell, Autobiog. (1912), I. iii. 33. This deafness is covered by the acquired, supernormal acuteness of the other ear.
2. Applied to phenomena of an extraordinary or exceptional kind, involving a higher law or principle than those ordinarily occurring, but not necessarily supernatural. Also absol.
1885. Myers, in Proc. Soc. Psych. Res., III. 30, note. I have ventured to coin the word ‘supernormal’ to be applied to phenomena which are beyond what usually happens…. By a supernormal phenomenon I mean,… one which exhibits the action of laws higher, in a psychical aspect, than are discerned in action in everyday life.
1886. Times, 30 Oct., 9/4. The phenomena of mesmerism, of hypnotism, and of other abnormal or supernormal conditions of the human consciousness.
1898. G. Tyrrell, in Month, Sept., 228. To justify those who refuse to go into alleged instances of the supernormal.
Hence Supernormally adv.
1895. Daily News, 22 Nov., 4/7. Knowledge supernormally acquired.
1899. A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, & Relig., xii. II. 23. I never hinted at morals divinely and supernormally revealed.
