WORD- UNCANNY

The main aim of Freud's essay is to accurately define "the uncanny;" therefore, I thought it would be practical and interesting to see how the OED online and other dictionaries online define the word. The definition that relates the best and incorporates many of the same aspects that Freud saw as important is given by the OED. Definition 4B reads, "Partaking of a supernatural character; mysterious, weird, uncomfortably strange or unfamiliar. (Common from c 1850.)" In addition, dictionary.com defines uncanny as "having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary: uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble." Both definitions get at the Freudian belief that the uncanny is characterized by the uncertain. For example, they both use synonyms for uncertainty such as "unfamiliar" in the OED definition and "extraordinary" in the dictionary.com definition. Freud, however, adds more to his definition. He states that the uncanny can also result from what he calls "unintended repetition," which is when an unimportant common event unexpectedly occurs repeatedly.