pyrokinesis / -kinetic

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>OED lacks these words despite the existence of about 175,000 Googits.

RHUD has "pyrokinesis", no date.

>Infoplease defines "pyrokinesis" as "the ability to set objects or people
>on fire through the concentration of psychic power.

Seems reasonable.

>The Magical Mavens at Wikipedia tell us that "a pyrokinetic is a person
>capable of generating flames from thin air, not requiring the consumption
>of oxygen or combustible objects to maintain the flames," with the
>observation that the word is used in "fantastic science fiction" and
>"superhero comic books."

This is too narrow, I believe. The meaning of the word can best be assessed
by some sort of consensus among SF writers etc., IMHO. I doubt it will be
universally agreed that pyrokinesis is in all cases independent of the
presence of combustible material or oxygen. It's hard to examine an example
of the referent for better assessment, I guess.

There are other words for this dubious facility, less common, such as
"telepyresis" (a better coinage IMHO) and some which I forget. IIRC, SF
writer John Brunner called a psychic fire-starter a "pyrotic" back in the
1950's.

-- Doug Wilson