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
- A strong feeling such as joy, sorrow, anger or love.
- Instinctive feeling as opposed to reason.
Word family
- emotionable
- emotionless
- emoticon
- unemotioned
- emotional
Related words
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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