feel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English felen, inherited from Old English fēlan,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan.^[6][4] Old English also had the prefixed gefēlan, which is more frequent than the simple verb and recorded earlier in several senses.^[7][6] It is cognate with Old Frisian fēla, Old Saxon gifōlian, Dutch voelen, Old High German fuolen and German fühlen.^[7][4][5][8] Further back the origin is uncertain:^[7] the OED mentions Old Norse falma (“to fumble, grope”), Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌼𐌰 (usfilma, “astonished”), Ancient Greek πελεμίζω (pelemízō, “to shake”) and Latin pollex (“thumb”) as possible relatives.^[7] Hoad, Weekley and Ayto connect it with folm (“palm of the hand”), Latin palma (“palm”) and Ancient Greek παλάμη (palámē, “palm”), from an Indo-European base Proto-Indo-European *pōl-, *pal-;^{[6][9][10][11]} Barnhart adds palpō (“to feel, stroke”) and pellō (“to set in motion”),^[4] and Klein a base meaning "to strike softly", with ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck a harp”).^[8] The OED suggests that some senses of perceiving and knowing follow Latin sentiō and French sentir.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English fēlan is first recorded before 900, in Alfred's translation of Orosius.^[4] The OED's earliest Old English quotation is for having a bodily sensation of something, and the 1989 edition of the OED dated "to examine by touching with the hand" to about 893.^[7][12]

Semantic evolution

Weekley notes that the verb was originally about touch, its figurative senses developing as those of touch did.^[9] Old English already used it of having a bodily sensation, of suffering the effects of something and of being aware of something;^[7] the sense "to know, understand" was lost by 1572.^[7] The emotional sense, to experience a feeling, appears about 1225,^[7] and the noun feeling for an emotion of joy or sorrow is first found in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess (1369).^[4] The construction with an adjective, "it feels soft", is recorded from 1581.^[7] The historical thesaurus links the vocabulary of physical sensation with knowledge and experience from the early 13th century and with understanding from the later 15th.^[13] The verb has meant to caress sexually since at least 1630,^[14] and the noun an act of groping since before 1628.^[7][14] Modern senses of the noun include the feel of a material (1739), the response of a car or tool to handling (1889), a feel for something, an aptitude (1891), and the atmosphere of a place (1892).^[7]

Timeline

• before 900 – Old English fēlan, in Alfred's Orosius.^[4]
• c. 1175 – to perceive by touch; to have sensations of touch.^[7]
• c. 1225 – to experience an emotion or conviction.^[7]
• c. 1225 – noun fele, sensation, understanding.^[4] The OED's first record of the noun is from before 1400.^[7]
• 1581 – with an adjective, to give a specified sensation: it feels smooth.^[7]
• before 1628 – noun, an act of sexual groping.^[7]
• 1739 – noun, the sensation a material gives when touched.^[7]
• 1889 – noun, the response of a vehicle or device to handling.^[7]
• 1891 – noun, an intuitive understanding, a feel for.^[7]
• 1892 – noun, the impression or atmosphere of a place or situation.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To perceive by touch, or to examine something by touching it: The nurse felt his forehead.^[15][3]
2. To have a physical or emotional sensation of: to feel the cold or to feel jealousy.^[15][3][7]
3. To be in a specified state, or to give a specified sensation: I feel sleepy, The water feels warm.^[15][7]
4. To find one's way by cautious testing or touching: to feel one's way.^[15][3]
5. To have a conviction or an impression, not always a clear one: She felt that something was wrong.^[15][3][7]
6. To have sympathy or compassion, with for.^[15][3]
7. To be affected or influenced by: The town still feels the effects of the flood.^[7][3]
8. (slang) To fondle someone sexually; to feel up.^[3][14]

Noun

1. The way something feels to the touch; its texture: the soft feel of velvet.^[3][7]
2. An act of feeling or touching.^[3][7]
3. The sense of touch.^[3][7]
4. An intuitive understanding or aptitude: a feel for languages.^[7][3]
5. The impression or atmosphere that a place or situation gives.^[7][3]
6. (slang) An act of sexual groping, as in cop a feel.^[3][14][7]

Word family

• feeler
• feel-good
• feeling
• refeel
• forefeel
• overfeel
• mouthfeel
• feel up

Related words

• palm
• palpable
• fumble

Usage notes

As a linking verb, meaning "to sense" rather than "to touch", feel takes an adjective: I feel bad about it, not badly, while feel badly properly means to have a poor sense of touch.^[16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "When it’s good to feel bad", 5 October 2009