Etymologically
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sensory

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsɛn.sə.ɹi/[1]

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Medieval Latin sensōrius (“belonging to sensation”), recorded from before 1540,[2][3][4] formed from sēnsus, the past participle of sentiō (“to feel, perceive”), and the suffix -ōrius, English -ory.[2][4][3] Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and Klein instead take it as formed in English from the Latin participle and -ory,[5][6][7] and the Oxford Dictionary of English allows a formation from sense.[8][9] The earlier noun sensory is from Medieval Latin sēnsōrium, English sensorium.[2][9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a sense organ: 1624, in A. Logie's Cum Bono Deo.[2] The adjective, designating the organs of the senses, follows in 1651, in a translation of Comenius's Natural Philosophy Reformed.[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun had a short life: a sense organ until the early 19th century, and after 1653 the part of the brain thought to be the seat of sensation, the common sensory (now historical).[2][9] Johnson (1755) entered it only as a noun, beside sensorium.[10] The adjective, first applied to the sense organs, from 1654 meant relating to the physical process of sensation.[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the adjective only from 1749,[4][5][6] the OED's revised entry from 1651.[2] It also describes nerves that carry impulses from the sense organs to the nerve centres, as opposed to motor nerves.[6][3] In early-20th-century psychology a sensory was a person whose mental life relied mainly on passive sense impressions;[2] William James used it in 1902.[2]

Timeline

  • 1624 – noun, a sense organ (obsolete by 1816).[2]
  • 1651 – adjective, of the organs of the senses.[2]
  • 1653 – noun, the seat of sensation in the brain.[2]
  • 1654 – adjective, relating to sensation.[2]
  • 1749 – first date in Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.[4][5][6]
  • 1902 – psychology, a person reliant on sense impressions (obsolete by 1929).[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Relating to the senses or to sensation: sensory impressions of the old market.[3][6][2]
  2. Of nerves and other structures: receiving stimuli and carrying impulses from the sense organs to the brain; afferent.[3][6]

Noun

  1. (obsolete, 1624–1816) A sense organ.[6][2]
  2. (archaic) The sensorium.[6][2][9]

Word family

  • sensorineural
  • unsensory
  • nonsensory
  • multisensory
  • extrasensory
  • parasensory
  • intersensory
  • supersensory

References

  1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.