Etymologically
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intuitive

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/[1]
  • US: /ɪnˈt(j)uɪtɪv/[1]

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

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