Meanings
- historicaluncountableA metal device that sits against the prostate and perineum, through which cold water is run, used to treat impotence and excessive masturbation.
Locally cold-steel sounds may be introduced and allowed to remain for ten minutes three or more times a week, or the psychophor or Ultzman's short catheter may be used.
1892, Charles Loomis Dana, Text-book of nervous diseases, page 4591 more example
Occasionally the use of Winternitz's psychophor or cooling sound may be useful. This is particularly likely to be so if there is any neuralgia associated with the hyperesthesia. Injections of cold water into the urethra are sometimes a benefit, but in cases where this is thought to be useful the psychophor is to be perferred, for in addition to the cooling influence produced by the water circulating through the sound, we have its mechanical influence the same as with an ordinary bougie, and its cooling effects can be regulated according to the duration of the application from a stimulating effect when very short to a depressing or antiphlogistic action if longer continued.
1906, Dr. C. W. Allen, “Impotency in the Male”, in New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, page 878
Origin
- Ancient Greek-φόρος“bearing”
- New Latin-phorus
- Ancient Greekψυχή“soul”
- Englishpsychophor
From Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul”) From New Latin -phorus, from Ancient Greek -φόρος (-phóros, “bearing”), a derivative of φέρω (phérō, “to bear, to carry”).
More words from Ancient Greek, New Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
psychophor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychophor
“psychophor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychophor. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “psychophor,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychophor.
Source: psychophor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.