ABSTRACT
The word is from the Greek phainomenon, meaning a thing appearing to view, and this is still basically the main sense in which it is usedwith reference to an apparent fact or situation, especially one that invites or even demands an explanation, such as the IMPOSTOR PHENOMENON, or the SELF-HANDICAPPING phenomenon. Sometimes a CONSTRUCT is described as, for example, a psychological phenomenon, or a social phenomenon, describing the source of its causes, though the provenance of many phenomena is a matter of dispute and something like AROUSAL can be simultaneously a physiological, emotional, and psychological phenomenon, depending on how it is investigated. In popular parlance, a phenomenon often describes something
fantastic or extraordinary. Similarly, in sport, the abbreviation, phenom is an athlete with extraordinary, prodigious TALENT, usually a young person who outperforms older and more experienced colleagues-a wunderkind (from the German for wonder child, of course). Epiphenomenon means a byproduct.
