sentir

Forms

sentir (first-person singular present sento, first-person singular preterite sentí, past participle sentit); root stress: (Northern) /e̞/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /e/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan sentir, which is inherited from Latin sentiō (“to perceive by the senses; to realise; to think”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Spanish sentir, Portuguese sentir, Occitan sentir, French sentir, Italian sentire and Romanian simți.^[6]

Wiktionary traces the Latin verb through *sentiō to *sent- (“to feel”), with Old High German sinnan (“to go; desire”) as a cognate.^[1] The DHLF calls its origin obscure.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines gives Llull as the first record.^[2] From the beginning the verb is used above all for three of the senses: Llull applies it to touch, listing it beside seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting, and often to smell, as when the peacock sent fortment “has a keen nose”.^[2] In the Llibre de contemplació men are afraid of sentir fam e set, of feeling hunger and thirst.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the smelling sense was transitive; later it survived only as an intransitive, more often meaning “to stink” than “to smell good”, and it is still transitive in Upper Aragon.^[2] More abstractly the verb kept the wide Latin range of any perception, of pleasure or pain, and of a foreboding of the future, as in Ausiàs March.^[2]

Already in medieval authors it was used more and more of hearing: Saint Vincent Ferrer says com sentreu les campanes, veniu a la missa “when you hear the bells, come to mass”.^[2] As the old verb oir weakened in speech, sentir became the normal verb of hearing, in this agreeing with Italian rather than with French and Spanish.^[2] Faraudo's medieval senses include hearing indistinctly, learning of something, and inquiring.^[9]

Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 lists perceiving, hearing, suffering, learning and being displeased.^[10] Wiktionary labels the sense “to regret, be sorry for” a Castilianism.^[1] The derivatives include sentiment and consentir in Llull, sentinella from Italian in 1575, sentit in 1653 and sentor in 1890.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century, second half – Llull uses the verb for touch and smell.^[2]
• 1250–1299 – first record in CICA, in the Catalan Diàlegs of Saint Gregory.^[11]
• c. 1400 – Saint Vincent Ferrer: com sentreu les campanes.^[2]
• 1440 – the Curial: sentí a la porta... gran brogit de trompetes.^[9]
• 1460 – Roig's Spill: no les sens.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's definitions.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra: to perceive by the senses, usually other than sight.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To perceive by the senses, usually other than sight; to feel a sensation: Sento una punxada a l'esquena.^[13][5][1]
2. To hear;^[13][5][1] sentir-hi: to be able to hear: No hi sent de l'orella dreta.^[13][5][1]
3. sentir dir or sentir a dir: to hear it said;^[13] sentir parlar de: to have heard of.^[13]
4. To experience a feeling of pleasure or pain: Va sentir una alegria immensa.^[13][5]
5. To regret, be sorry about a sad event.^[5][3]
6. To be aware of;^[3][5] (reflexive) sentir-se + adjective: to feel oneself to be.^[3][5]
7. (intransitive) To give off a smell, especially a bad one.^[3][2]

Word family

• consentir
• ressentir-se
• ressentiment
• sentida
• sentiment
• sentimental
• sentit
• sentidament
• sentor

Related words

• sentinella
• assentir
• dissentir
• pressentir
• sensació
• oir
• Latin sentiō
• Italian sentire

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 802
3. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. sentir
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 836
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. sentir
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7824
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sentir
8. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. sentir
9. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. sentir
10. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. sentir
11. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. sentir
12. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. sentir
13. ^ a b c d e f Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. sentir