emotion

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ (UK); /ɪˈmoʊ.ʃən/, /iˈmoʊ.ʃən/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French émotion,^[2][3][4] from esmovoir (“to stir up”), after mouvoir, motion,^[4][5] from Latin ēmovēre (“to move out, remove, agitate”), from ex (“out”) and movēre (“to move”) (see move).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A public disturbance or commotion: 1579, in great stirs and emotions in Lombardy;^[6][7][2] the 1570s in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the modern meaning is surprisingly recent: the word first meant a commotion and then a movement or migration (1603).^[6][7] A physical agitation is from 1692 and obsolete.^[7] Strong feeling, a disturbance of the mind, is from 1660, when the word came into common use,^[2][7] and any feeling, in psychology, by 1808.^[3][7] A Middle English term for feelings was wits of the heart.^[3] Emotional is from 1834, in John Stuart Mill, and emote an American back-formation of 1917.^[2]

Timeline

• 1579 – a public commotion.^[2][7]
• 1603 – a migration.^[7]
• 1660 – strong feeling.^[2][7]
• 1808 – any feeling.^[3][7]
• 1834 – emotional.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A strong feeling such as joy, sorrow, anger or love.
2. Instinctive feeling as opposed to reason.

Word family

• emotionable
• emotionless
• emoticon
• unemotioned
• emotional

Related words

• emote
• emotive
• move
• motion
• commotion

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press