perceptible

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English perceptible,^[2] borrowed from Late Latin perceptibilis (“able to be perceived; able to perceive”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} from Latin perceptus, the past participle of percipiō (“to perceive”),^[4][5][7] and the suffix -ibilis.^[3][5] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford also allow a route through Old French perceptible,^[8][9] but the OED's first French record, of 1486, is later than the English.^[3] The Latin verb, the source of perceive, is from per- and capiō (“to seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap-.^[4] The OED dates the Latin adjective's passive sense to the 4th century and the active one to the 6th.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to perceive: before 1430, in Hoccleve's De Beata Virgine, where only the eye is "perceptible of light".^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first English use was the active one, which was alive until 1772 and which Merriam-Webster still lists as archaic.^[3][5][9] The passive sense, the one that survived, is first recorded in 1567 in the OED, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure,^[3] although Etymonline dates it to about 1600 and the Shorter Oxford to the early 17th century.^[8][9] Johnson (1755) gives only this sense, "such as may be known or observed", quoting Bacon, Hale and Pope.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1430 – able to perceive (obsolete by 1772).^[3][2]
• 1567 – able to be perceived by the mind or senses.^[3]
• 1755 – adverb (obsolete, rare).^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be perceived by the senses or the mind; noticeable: A perceptible chill crept into the room.^[11][5][3]
2. (obsolete, before 1430–1772) Able to perceive; perceptive.^[3][9][5]

Word family

• perceptibility
• perceptibly
• nonperceptible

Related words

• perceive
• percept
• perception
• perceptive
• imperceptible
• -ible

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins