anankastic

comparative more anankastic · superlative most anankastic

1. grammarImperative, as in the anankastic conditional.
2. human sciencesCharacterised by compulsion; obsessive-compulsive.

   1991: ‘You’re a classic anal-retentive,’ he says, ‘tirelessly absorbed by minutiae, anankastic in the extreme – it’s lucky you have me to deal with the broad sweep of things, to do the abstract thinking.’ — Will Self, ‘Mono-Cellular’, The Quantity Theory of Insanity

plural anankastics

1. grammarAn anankastic phrase or utterance.
2. rarehuman sciencesAn obsessive-compulsive individual.

   Like many anankastics, he suffers from a disturbance in the capacity to act, which is revealed especially as an impediment to beginning something new and completing something.

   2012, Matthew R. Broome, The Maudsley Reader in Phenomenological Psychiatry, page 235

   Synonyms: anancastic