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sense

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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