Preternatural derives from the Latin phrase
praeter naturam, which means "beyond nature." Medieval Latin scholars rendered the term as
praeternaturalis,
and that form inspired the modern English version. Unusual things are
sometimes considered positive and sometimes negative, and throughout its
history
preternatural has been used to refer to both
exceptionally good things and unnaturally evil ones. In its earliest
documented uses in the
1500s, it tended to emphasize the strange,
ominous, or foreboding, but by the 1700s, people were using it more
benignly to refer to fascinating supernatural (or even heavenly)
phenomena. Nowadays, people regularly use it to describe the remarkable
abilities of exceptional humans.
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