feeling

Etymology

The noun is formed from English feel + -ing,^[2][3][4][5] the Middle English form being feling, also felinge, from felen with -inge.^[6] The verb is from Old English fēlan,^[5][1] from Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan,^[1] with cognates in Old Saxon fōlian, Dutch voelen and German fühlen.^[5][1][7] Ayto places it in a wider family of words for touching and handling, with Ancient Greek παλάμη (palámē) and Latin palma, the palm of the hand.^[7] The adjective, recorded from before 1400, is the present participle of the same verb,^[2][3] with an ending altered from -inde and -ende.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The capacity to sense touch and other bodily sensations: before 1225, in a homily in a Lambeth manuscript.^[2] Etymonline, with "act of touching, sense of touch", puts the word in the late 12th century,^[3] Merriam-Webster in the 12th century,^[6] and Dictionary.com in 1125–75.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The senses of bodily sensation came first and those of emotion after.^[2] By about 1400 it could mean the capacity to feel emotion, in Chaucer's Boece,^[2] though Etymonline dates that only to the 1580s;^[3] before 1413, in Troilus and Criseyde, it meant an emotion itself,^[2] which Etymonline puts in the mid-14th century.^[3] In the 15th century it came to mean what one feels about something, an attitude or opinion.^[2][3] The plural, for a person's emotions as a whole, is recorded from 1530,^[2] and is now the basis of hurt someone's feelings.^[8][2] Johnson (1755) gave "the sense of touch", "sensibility; tenderness" and "perception".^[9] The modern use for a vague belief that something is true appears only in 1811,^[2] and feeling was the word for market sentiment among traders from 1823.^[2] The adjective followed a parallel course, from able to feel (before 1400) to heartfelt (1531) and to sympathetic (1583).^[2]

Timeline

• before 1225 – the capacity to sense touch and other bodily sensations.^[2]
• c. 1225 – the action of touching or of experiencing a sensation.^[2]
• before 1400 – adjective, able to feel.^[2]
• c. 1400 – the capacity to feel emotion.^[2]
• before 1413 – an emotion.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the mid-14th century.^[3]
• before 1425 – a single physical sensation; awareness of a fact or one's condition.^[2]
• c. 1425 – an attitude or opinion based on emotion.^[2][3]
• 1530 – plural, a person's emotions as a whole.^[2]
• 1531 – adjective, deeply felt.^[2]
• 1583 – adjective, sympathetic, compassionate.^[2]
• 1811 – a vague belief or impression.^[2]
• 1823 – market sentiment among traders.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An emotion; an emotional state: a feeling of relief.^[8][6][2]
2. (plural) A person's emotions and sensibilities as a whole: He hurt her feelings.^[8][2]
3. An idea or belief not based on reason; an impression: She had a feeling they were lost.^[8][2]
4. An attitude or opinion: There is strong feeling in the town against the bypass.^[8][2]
5. The sense of touch; the ability to sense heat, pain and pressure: He lost all feeling in his toes.^[8][6][2]
6. A bodily sensation: a feeling of cold in the hands.^[8][6][2]
7. Sympathy, fondness; the capacity to feel deeply.^[8][2]
8. Intuitive understanding or sensitivity: a feeling for music.^[8]
9. An impression or mood given by a place.^[8]

Adjective

1. Able to feel; sentient.^[8][6][2]
2. Easily moved; sympathetic or warm-hearted.^[8][6][2]
3. Expressing strong emotion: a feeling tribute.^[8][6][2]

Word family

• feelingly
• feelingness
• nonfeeling
• self-feeling
• underfeeling
• unfeeling
• fellow feeling
• ill feeling

Related words

• feel
• feeler
• palm
• palpable

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes the word from its near-synonyms: feeling is the general term for what a person experiences or thinks subjectively, emotion a heightened feeling, passion a strong one that can override judgment, and sentiment a blend of thought and feeling, often a tender one.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.