sense

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sens/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sense, borrowed from Old French sens (“one of the five senses; meaning; wit, understanding”),^[2][3][4] and directly from Latin sēnsus (“perception, feeling, understanding, meaning”),^[2][3][5] from sentīre (“to perceive, feel, know”).^[2][3][4] Etymonline, after Watkins, suggests that this is a figurative use of a literal “find one's way, go mentally”, from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to go”),^[3][4] the source also of Old High German sinnan (“to go, travel, strive after, perceive”) and German Sinn (“sense, mind”).^[3][6][7] It is related to sentiment, sensible, sensation and send.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Meaning, signification, especially of Holy Scripture: before 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible,^[2] or the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

“The faculty of perception” is from about 1400,^[3] and each of the outward senses, such as sight or hearing, from the 1520s^[3] or 1526.^[8] They are usually reckoned as five, sometimes with a “muscular” and an “inner” sense added to make seven, hence the old phrase the seven senses, “consciousness in its totality”.^[3] An instinctive faculty of perception or estimation, as in a sense of direction, is from 1567.^[8] The senses as channels of physical pleasure are from 1597.^[8] “That which is wise or sensible” is from about 1600.^[3] The verb meant “to perceive by the senses” from the 1590s^[3] or about 1531,^[7] “to be conscious of an inward state” from the 1680s,^[3] and “to become aware of without direct perception” from 1872.^[3][8] Of a machine, “to detect”, it is from 1946.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1382 – meaning (Wycliffe Bible).^[2]
• c. 1400 – the faculty of perception.^[3]
• 1520s – one of the bodily senses.^[3]
• 1567 – an instinctive faculty.^[8]
• 1590s – verb, to perceive.^[3]
• c. 1600 – good judgement.^[3]
• 1872 – verb, to become aware of.^[3]
• 1946 – verb, of a machine, to detect.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of the faculties, such as sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, by which stimuli are perceived.
2. A feeling or perception: a sense of danger.
3. An ability to understand or appreciate: a sense of humour.
4. Sound judgement; intelligence: common sense.
5. (senses) Normal powers of mind: come to one's senses.
6. A meaning of a word or expression.
7. A general opinion: the sense of the meeting.

Verb

1. To become aware of; to perceive.
2. To grasp, understand.
3. To detect automatically, as an instrument does.

Word family

• nonsense
• antisense
• senseful
• senseless
• sensory

Related words

• extrasensory
• sensation
• sensible
• sensitive
• sensor
• sensorium
• sensual
• sensuous
• sentiment
• sentence
• consensus
• send

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press