Etymologically
Log in

sensitive

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 01:31. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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