sensitive

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈsen.sɪ.tɪv/, /ˈsen.sə.tɪv/, US /ˈsen.sə.t̬ɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sensitif, borrowed from Middle French sensitif and directly from Medieval Latin sensitīvus (“capable of sensation”),^[2][3][4] formed irregularly from Latin sentīre “to feel, perceive”.^[2][5] It is related to sense.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having sensation, of the body or its parts: 1392 in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[3][2] In scholastic philosophy, of the faculty of the soul that receives sense impressions, about 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of or affecting the senses is by the 1520s (1530 in the OED).^[2][6] The sensitive plant, a mimosa that folds its leaves when touched, is from 1633.^[6] The sense “easily affected, easily hurt by unkindness” is from Scott's Old Mortality in 1816;^[3][2] the New Oxford dates the current senses to the early 19th century.^[5] Of instruments, responding to very slight changes, it is by 1857,^[2] and the Cold War sense “involving national security” is by 1953.^[2] Sensitivity is from 1803.^[3]

Timeline

• 1392 – having sensation.^[3]
• 1520s – affecting the senses.^[2]
• 1633 – the sensitive plant.^[6]
• 1816 – easily affected.^[3]
• 1857 – of instruments.^[2]
• 1953 – involving national security.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Aware of and understanding the feelings of others.
2. Easily hurt or upset.
3. Quickly affected by something: sensitive to light.
4. Able to measure very small changes.
5. Needing careful treatment because it may cause offence or involve secrets: a sensitive issue.

Noun

1. A person believed to have psychic powers.

Word family

• sensitively
• sensitiveness
• electrosensitive
• photosensitive
• radiosensitive
• sensitize
• supersensitive
• thermosensitive

Related words

• sense
• sensitivity
• sensible

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 f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press