emotional

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən.əl/, US /ɪˈmoʊ.ʃən.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English emotion + -al.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Pertaining to emotion”: 1821 in Etymonline,^[2] 1834 in the OED and Merriam-Webster.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

“Characterized by or subject to emotion, easily moved” is attested by 1857.^[2][4] The Shorter Oxford also records “full of emotion, showing strong emotion” from the mid-19th century, and tired and emotional as a euphemism.^[3] Emotional intelligence was coined by the mid-1960s and became popular from the mid-1980s.^[2]

Timeline

• 1821 – pertaining to emotion.^[2]
• 1857 – easily moved.^[2][4]
• mid-1960s – emotional intelligence.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of or relating to emotion.
2. Easily affected or stirred by emotion.
3. Arousing, or meant to arouse, the emotions: an emotional appeal.
4. Showing emotion: an emotional farewell.

Word family

• emotionality
• emotionally
• emotionalist
• pseudoemotional
• unemotional
• emotionalism
• hyperemotional
• nonemotional

Related words

• emotion
• emote
• motion
• emotive

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster