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Etymology and origin of the English word consciousness

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1605 Edwin Sandys, Relation of the State of Religion
Ultimate origin
Latin sciō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin conscius
English conscious
English consciousness
From the same root
English subconscious ← conscius

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒnʃəsnəs/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, /ˈkɒnʃəsnəs/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English conscious + -ness.[2][3][4][5] The adjective is from Latin cōnscius (“sharing knowledge, privy; inwardly aware”), from com- and sciō (“to know”).[2][3] Etymonline thinks the Latin adjective probably a loan translation of a Greek word.[3] The OED compares the older noun conscience, which had the same meaning before consciousness took it over.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inward knowledge or conviction of something about oneself: 1605, in Edwin Sandys's Relation of the State of Religion.[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1630s, in the sense "internal knowledge",[3] and Dictionary.com to 1625–35.[5]

Semantic evolution

At first the word meant an inner awareness of something in oneself, often of one's own guilt or innocence;[2][4] Johnson (1755) gave "internal sense of guilt, or innocence" as its second sense.[7] The philosophical sense, the faculty from which awareness of thought, feeling and the outside world arises, is recorded from 1678, in Cudworth,[2][8] and Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding used it in 1694 for the whole of the thoughts and feelings that make up a person's sense of self.[2] Johnson's first sense, "the perception of what passes in a man's own mind", quotes Locke.[7] From 1718 the word was also applied to the shared ideas of a group or an age,[2] and since 1753 to the waking state of being aware of one's surroundings, the sense in lose consciousness.[2][8] Etymonline dates awareness of anything at all to 1746.[3] It is also used for concern for an issue, often after a noun, as in class consciousness,[6][9] and consciousness-raising is recorded from 1968.[3]

Timeline

  • 1605 – inward knowledge of something about oneself.[2][6]
  • 1678 – in philosophy, the faculty of awareness of thought, feeling and the external world.[2][8]
  • 1694 – the totality of a person's thoughts and feelings, in Locke.[2]
  • 1718 – the collective ideas and beliefs of a group or period.[2]
  • 1748 – awareness of a fact.[2] Etymonline dates awareness of anything to 1746.[3]
  • 1753 – the waking state of being aware of one's surroundings.[2][8]
  • 1968 – consciousness-raising.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings: The driver lost consciousness after the crash.[2][9]
  2. Awareness or perception of something, either within oneself or in the outside world: a growing consciousness of his own mistakes.[6][2]
  3. The faculty of the mind that gives rise to thought, feeling and perception; in philosophy and psychology, the mind as aware of itself.[2][6]
  4. The ideas, attitudes and feelings that make up a person's or a group's sense of identity: national consciousness.[9][2]
  5. Special awareness of or concern for a particular issue, often after a noun: class consciousness.[9][6]
  6. (psychoanalysis) The conscious part of the mind.[9]

Word family

  • consciousness-raising
  • class consciousness
  • stream of consciousness

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Consciousness.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/consciousness. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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