intuitive

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin intuitīvus,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin intuitus, the past participle of intueor (“to look at, consider, contemplate”),^[3][4][7] from in- (“into, at”) and tueor (“to look at, watch over”),^[7][4] a verb of uncertain origin.^[7] Etymonline allows that it may also have come through French intuitif,^[7] which the OED and the Shorter Oxford only compare.^[2][5] It belongs with intuition, from the same Latin verb.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of sight or vision, looking directly at an object and seeing it as it is; and of the immediate vision of angels and spirits: both in 1593, in Richard Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.^[2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the late 15th century, first of sight in the sense "clear, unerring".^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

From the 1640s the word was used of knowledge or perception that comes at once, without reasoning;^[2][7][3] Merriam-Webster dates this to about 1645.^[3] It was soon applied to gifts that are innate rather than learned (1621), to the mind itself (Milton, 1667) and to people who have intuition (1652).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as seen by the mind immediately, without the intervention of reason.^[8] Of truths it has meant self-evident since 1833, in John Stuart Mill,^[2][7] and in moral philosophy, of the school that holds the first principles of ethics to be known by intuition, since 1852.^[2] The older literal senses connected with sight died out in the 17th century.^[2][5] A newer sense, easy to understand and to use without instruction, applied especially to software and devices, is recorded in the AHD and Dictionary.com.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1593 – of sight, seeing an object directly; of the vision ascribed to angels (Hooker).^[2]
• 1621 – of a faculty or gift, innate, not learned.^[2]
• 1645 – of knowledge, immediate, without reasoning.^[2][3]
• 1652 – of persons, possessing intuition.^[2]
• 1667 – of the mind, acting by intuition (Milton, Paradise Lost).^[2]
• 1833 – of a truth, self-evident (John Stuart Mill).^[2][7]
• 1852 – of the intuitive school of moral philosophy.^[2]
• 1907 – noun, a person who works by intuition.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Known or understood by intuition, without conscious reasoning: an intuitive grasp of the rules.^[11][3][9]
2. Having or showing intuition: She is an intuitive negotiator.^[9][10][2]
3. Easy to understand and to use without instruction: an intuitive control panel.^[9][10]
4. (philosophy) Known immediately, without inference; opposed to discursive.^[3][2][5]

Word family

• intuitively
• intuitiveness
• intuitivism

Related words

• intuition
• intuit
• tuition
• tutor

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 r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins