subjective

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin subiectīvus,^[2][3][4] which in classical Latin meant "placed after something, postpositional" and in medieval British sources from the 13th century also "submissive" and "relating to the subject in which attributes inhere".^[2] The adjective was formed with the suffix -īvus on subiectus, the past participle of subiciō (“to bring under, place under”),^[2][5][4] the source of subject.^[3][4] The OED compares Middle French subjectif, recorded from about 1350, and the later German subjektiv of the 18th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to a person who is a subject, especially a political one; submissive, obedient: 1417, in a Guildhall letter-book.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1500, and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The political sense was obsolete by the early 19th century.^[2][6] In 1564 the word appears in metaphysics for what belongs to a thing as it is in itself, in contrast with objective, what belongs to it as the mind perceives it, a distinction from medieval scholastic philosophy.^[2][3] Early modern philosophy then made the mind that thinks and perceives the main "subject"; from 1707 subjective meant arising within the individual consciousness, nearly reversing its older meaning;^[2][3] Etymonline says this use was made popular by Kant and his contemporaries.^[3] Johnson (1755) explained it as relating to the subject rather than the object, citing Watts on two kinds of certainty.^[7] The everyday senses followed: personal, coloured by one's own views (a1767), existing only in the mind (1815), perceived only by the patient (1821), and excessively introspective (1836).^[2] Grammar used it from 1794 for the case of the subject of a sentence; from 1817 the subjective was used as a noun.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1417 – relating to a political subject; submissive (obsolete by 1827).^[2]
• 1564 – (metaphysics) inherent, belonging to a thing in itself.^[2]
• 1707 – (philosophy) proceeding from the thinking subject.^[2][3]
• a1767 – personal, not impartial.^[2]
• 1794 – (grammar) of the subject of a sentence.^[2]
• 1815 – existing in the mind only; illusory.^[2]
• 1817 – noun, the subjective, in Coleridge.^[2][5]
• 1821 – (medicine) perceptible only to the patient.^[2]
• 1836 – given to brooding over one's own feelings.^[2]
• 1840 – (art and criticism) expressing the artist's individuality.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Based on or influenced by a person's own feelings, tastes or opinions rather than on facts; personal, not impartial: Her review of the play was frankly subjective.
2. (philosophy) Belonging to the mind of the thinking subject rather than to the object of thought.
3. Existing only in the mind; illusory.
4. (medicine) Of a symptom, felt by the patient but not detectable by an examiner.
5. (grammar) Of or being the subject of a sentence; nominative.

Noun

1. the subjective: that which is subjective.

Word family

• subjectively
• subjectiveness
• subjectivity
• intersubjective
• nonsubjective
• subjectivism
• subjectivize
• unsubjective

Related words

• objective
• subject

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 s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.