insensitive

Etymology

It is formed from English in- (“not”) + sensitive.^[2][3][4][5] Sensitive is from Old French sensitif (“capable of feeling”) and Medieval Latin sēnsitīvus (“capable of sensation”),^[6][3] from Latin sēnsus (“sense”), the past participle of sentiō (“to feel, perceive”).^[2][6] Etymonline compares the sense of insensate.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Without feeling or consciousness; not sentient, inanimate: 1610, in John Healey's translation of Augustine's City of God.^[3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1600, with the sense of having little or no reaction to what the senses perceive,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, not sentient, died out after 1713.^[3] The modern sense, lacking mental or moral sensitiveness, is recorded from 1834, in Thomas Campbell's Life of Mrs Siddons,^[3][2][4] and the physical sense, of a part of the body without feeling, from 1866.^[3] From 1872 the word was used of substances not affected by a physical influence, especially light,^[3] and since 1968 of a quantity little affected by changes in another.^[3] The meaning "without consideration for the feelings of others" is recorded by 1974.^[2]

Timeline

• 1610 – not sentient, inanimate (obsolete by 1713).^[3]
• 1834 – lacking mental or moral sensitiveness.^[3][2][4]
• 1866 – of a part of the body, without feeling.^[3]
• 1872 – of a substance, not affected by light or another influence.^[3]
• 1968 – of a quantity, unaffected by changes in a related quantity.^[3]
• 1974 – without consideration for the feelings of others.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing no concern for other people's feelings; tactless or unfeeling: an insensitive joke about his illness.^[8][9][4]
2. Lacking physical feeling; numb.^[9][8][3]
3. Not affected by or responsive to something: a gauge that is insensitive to small changes in pressure.^[8][9][3]
4. (obsolete, 1610–1713) Not sentient; inanimate.^[3][4][7]

Word family

• insensitively
• insensitiveness
• insensitivity

Related words

• sensitive
• insensate
• insensible
• sense
• sensitivity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin