Supernatural

==Etymology and history of the concept==
Occurring as both an [[adjective]] and a [[noun]], antecedents of the modern English [[compound word|compound]] ''supernatural'' enter the language from two sources: via [[Middle French]] ({{lang|frm|supernaturel}}) and directly from the Middle French's term's ancestor, post-[[Classical Latin]] ({{lang|la|supernaturalis}}). Post-classical Latin {{lang|la|supernaturalis}} first occurs in the 6th century, composed of the [[Latin]] [[prefix]] {{lang|la|super-}} and {{lang|la|nātūrālis}} (see [[nature]]). The earliest known appearance of the word in the English language occurs in a Middle English translation of [[Catherine of Siena]]'s ''[[Dialogue]]'' (''orcherd of Syon'', around 1425; {{lang|enm|Þei haue not þanne þe supernaturel lyȝt ne þe liȝt of kunnynge, bycause þei vndirstoden it not}}).<ref name="OED-SUPERNATURAL">{{Cite OED |supernatural |id=194422 |access-date=24 October 2018}}</ref>

The semantic value of the term has shifted over the history of its use. Originally the term referred exclusively to Christian understandings of the world. For example, as an adjective, the term can mean "belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly beings; attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; occult, paranormal" or "more than what is natural or ordinary; unnaturally or extraordinarily great; abnormal, extraordinary". Obsolete uses include "of, relating to, or dealing with [[metaphysics]]". As a noun, the term can mean "a supernatural being", with a particularly strong history of employment in relation to entities from the [[mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas]].<ref name="OED-SUPERNATURAL"/>

===History of the concept===
The ancient world had no word that resembled "supernatural".<ref name="Oxford">{{cite web |title=Supernatural |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100543199?rskey=wA4CHW&result=20|website=A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion|publisher=Oxford Reference Online – Oxford University Press |format=Online |quote=The ancients had no word for the supernatural any more than they had for nature.}}</ref> Dialogues from [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic philosophy]] in the third century AD contributed to the development of the concept the supernatural via [[Christian theology]] in later centuries.<ref name="Supernatural as a Western Category">{{Cite journal | doi=10.1525/eth.1977.5.1.02a00040|title = Supernatural as a Western Category| journal=Ethos| volume=5| pages=31–53|year = 1977|last1 = Saler|first1 = Benson|doi-access=free}}</ref> The term ''nature'' had existed since antiquity, with Latin authors like [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] using the word and its cognates at least 600 times in ''[[The City of God|City of God]]''. In the medieval period, "nature" had ten different meanings and "natural" had eleven different meanings.<ref name="Bartlett">{{cite book |last1=Bartlett |first1=Robert |title=The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages |date=14 March 2008 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9O3PtKMPNsC&pg=PA1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521702553 |chapter=1. The Boundaries of the Supernatural |pages=1–34}}</ref> [[Peter Lombard]], a medieval scholastic in the 12th century, asked about causes that are beyond nature, in that how there could be causes that were God's alone. He used the term ''praeter naturam'' in his writings.<ref name="Bartlett" /> In the scholastic period, [[Thomas Aquinas]] classified miracles into three categories: "above nature", "beyond nature", and "against nature". In doing so, he sharpened the distinction between nature and miracles more than the early Church Fathers had done.<ref name="Bartlett" /> As a result, he had created a dichotomy of sorts of the natural and supernatural.<ref name="Supernatural as a Western Category"/> Though the phrase ''"supra naturam"'' was used since the 4th century AD, it was in the 1200s that Thomas Aquinas used the term ''"supernaturalis"'' and despite this, the term had to wait until the end of the medieval period before it became more popularly used.<ref name="Bartlett" /> The discussions on "nature" from the scholastic period were diverse and unsettled with some postulating that even miracles are natural and that natural magic was a natural part of the world.<ref name="Bartlett" />