experiential

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Medieval Latin experientialis (“experimental”),^[2][3][4] a 13th-century Latin formation^[2] from Latin experientia (“experience, test”) and the suffix -ālis.^[2][3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead take it as an English formation from experience on the model of inferential, dating it to the early 19th century,^[5][6] and Etymonline forms it from the Latin noun and -al.^[7] Experientia comes from experiēns, the present participle of experior (“to try, test”),^[7][2] formed from ex- (“out of”) and peritus (“experienced, tested”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try, risk”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest use, now obsolete, is in Thomas Meriton's Wandring Lover (1658), where the OED tentatively glosses it "of which one is aware".^[2] The adverb experientially is recorded from 1647, in Henry More,^[2] and Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1640s on its evidence.^[7] Merriam-Webster gives 1658.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "of or relating to experience" dates from 1691.^[2] In 19th-century philosophy the word was used for "originating in sense experience", from 1857, and of a theory "stressing the role of experience", from 1865 in John Stuart Mill, beside experientialism;^[2] Collins still labels the sense "empirical" as philosophical.^[8] From 1878 it was used in religion of an emphasis on personal experience over theory or authority, and since 1894 of what is actually experienced or felt.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English illustrates the modern sense with learning gained through employment.^[6]

Timeline

• 1658 – perhaps, of which one is aware (obsolete).^[2]
• 1691 – of or relating to experience.^[2]
• 1857 – in philosophy, originating in sense experience.^[2]
• 1865 – of a theory, stressing the role of experience.^[2]
• 1878 – in religion, stressing personal experience over authority.^[2]
• 1894 – experienced, felt, undergone.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to, based on or derived from experience and observation: an experiential approach to teaching science.^{[3][9][10][6]}
2. (philosophy) Empirical; originating in sense experience.^[8][3][2]
3. In religion, giving personal experience priority over theory or authority.^[2]

Word family

• experientially
• unexperiential
• experientialism
• nonexperiential

Related words

• experience
• experiment
• expert
• experient

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press