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mesmerist

mesmerist

1 9.9
A person who uses special techniques to make someone fall into a trance
  • noun
  • /ˈmɛzmərɪst/
  • Archaic
translation icon : mesmerista
  • Ellen failed to remark that this son was a model of male beauty, with pale skin, a neat closely trimmed beard, and the eyes of a mesmerist.

But when you are talking to Steve Jobs, he seduces you and he hip, he was Steve Jobs was almost like a mesmerist.

Examples

  • Magicians and mesmerists often entertained in her parlor.

  • He is an accomplished mesmerist... ...who claims to have conquered disease and death several times over.

  • There was a dinner theater in Birmingham looking for a mesmerist to open the show, and he had played well there in the past.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • He had discovered himself around two a.m. standing over the stove, staring into its twisty glow like a mesmerist's victim, but that had been all.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • In 1873 in Cheltenham, she was billed as the 'World Famed Wizard Queen, Humourist and Clairvoyant Mesmerist.'

    Blog text (7)
  • During the more than twenty years that Mulvey's manifesto has entranced film criticism by the intensity of its strongly concentrated vision, some of us have had time to understand that we enter that trance, the better to turn them per the mesmerist's instructions, with our eyes half closed.

    Academic text (1997)
  • The patient finally disintegrated, having revealed nothing about the next world, and thus scolding intrusive mesmerists who prolonged contact between the living and the expired ("The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"; "The Living Death").

    Academic text (2015)
  • She is, I think, a Mesmerist, a Swedenborgian, a phrenologist, a homopathist, and a disciple of Priessnitz—what more I am not prepared to say.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The mesmerist captivated the audience as he put his volunteer into a deep trance.

  • During the performance, the mesmerist used soothing words to help his subject relax.

Synonyms

hypnotist
vsmesmerist
13 5.5

A person who uses guided relaxation to make people follow suggestions for help or entertainment

is more tied to using mesmerism than to skill or performance
hypnotherapist
vsmesmerist
  • Specialized
4 7.2

A person who uses hypnosis to help people change habits and overcome fears

uses mesmerism specifically rather than primarily for therapy
hypnotizer
vsmesmerist
  • US
1 7.2

A person who puts someone into a relaxed, focused trance using words

focuses on the mesmerism method rather than general induction
hypnologist
vsmesmerist
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A person who guides others into deep relaxation to help change feelings or habits

focuses on applying mesmerism rather than studying or researching hypnosis
mesmerizer
vsmesmerist
  • Specialized
9.9

A person who uses a calm voice and slow movements to put people into a sleep-like state

uses mesmerism specifically rather than any general hypnotic method

Surface Forms

mesmerist singular
mesmerists plural

Morphology

mesmerist = mesmerize (semi-transparent) = mesmer + ist

While the connection to 'mesmerize' is clear, the specific role of a 'mesmerist' as a practitioner of hypnosis may not be immediately obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Mesmerist comes from the name Mesmer, a doctor who used the idea of 'animal magnetism', like an invisible 'magnet' he thought could attract and control people. So a mesmerist is someone who tries to put people into a trance or hypnotize them.