Etymologically
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receptive

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɹɪˈsɛptɪv/[1]
  • US: /ɹəˈsɛptɪv/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin receptīvus (“capable of receiving”),[2][3][4][5] common in British sources from about 1200,[2] formed from receptus, the past participle of recipiō (“to take back, receive”), and the suffix -īvus.[2][4][5] The Shorter Oxford also names French réceptif as a possible source,[6] and the OED compares Middle French receptif (about 1450), Spanish receptivo and Italian ricettivo.[2] The Latin verb is the source of receive.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Capable of receiving, followed by of: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.[2] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century, as "having the quality of receiving, acting as a receptacle".[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began in learned writing for anything able to take in or hold something.[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "having the quality of admitting what is communicated", quoting Hooker on the soul and Glanvill on space "receptive of all bodies".[7] Without a following of it is recorded from 1547,[2] and the use with to, open to ideas or suggestions, from 1845.[2] In 1889 it entered both medicine and psychology, for the understanding of language as against its production, and botany, for a female flower ready to be fertilized;[2] Etymonline dates the language sense to 1926.[3] Since 1922 zoologists have used it of a female animal willing to mate.[2][4]

Timeline

  • before 1425 – capable of receiving, with of.[2]
  • 1547 – without a following preposition.[2]
  • 1845 – with to, open to ideas or suggestions.[2]
  • 1889 – of or relating to the understanding of language.[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1926.[3]
  • 1889 – of a female flower, sexually mature.[2]
  • 1922 – of a female animal, willing to mate.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Willing to consider new ideas, suggestions or impressions: The board was receptive to the proposal.[4][8][2]
  2. Able to receive or hold something.[8][4][2]
  3. Quick to understand.[8]
  4. Of a sense organ, able to receive and pass on stimuli; sensory.[4]
  5. Relating to the understanding of language rather than its production.[2][3]
  6. Of a female animal, ready to mate; of a female flower, ready to be fertilized.[4][2]

Word family

  • receptively
  • receptiveness
  • receptivity
  • nonreceptive
  • unreceptive

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 s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins