tactile

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tāctilis (“tangible, that may be touched”),^[2][3][4][5] and Barnhart and Etymonline take it also as borrowed from French tactile, recorded in the 16th century.^[6][5][7] The Latin adjective is formed from tāctus, the past participle of tangō (“to touch”), with the suffix -ilis,^[3][8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *tag- (“to touch, handle”).^[5] It is related to tact^[3] and tangent.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Perceptible to the touch, tangible: 1615, in Helkiah Crooke's anatomy Mikrokosmographia.^[2][6][9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, that can be touched, is now rare;^[10] the main modern sense, relating to the sense of touch, is dated to the 1650s by Etymonline^[5] and to before 1706, in Evelyn, by the OED.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it only as "susceptible of touch".^[11] It was applied to organs endowed with touch from 1768,^[2] and in art criticism Bernard Berenson spoke in 1896 of tactile values, the illusion of solidity a painter gives to figures.^[2] Since 1971 it has also described a person given to touching others as a sign of affection.^[2] Merriam-Webster records a noun tactile (1917) in psychology for a person whose mental imagery is mainly of touch.^[9]

Timeline

• 1615 – perceptible to the touch, tangible.^[2][9][6]
• before 1706 – relating to the sense of touch.^[2]
• 1768 – of organs, endowed with the sense of touch.^[2]
• 1896 – tactile values, in Berenson's art criticism.^[2]
• 1917 – noun, a person whose imagery is mainly tactile.^[9]
• 1971 – of a person, given to touching others.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to or perceived through the sense of touch: Babies learn through tactile exploration.^[10][9][2]
2. Of an organ, having the sense of touch or used for touching.^[10][9][2]
3. Of a person, inclined to touch others as a sign of affection.^[2]
4. (rare) Able to be touched; tangible.^[10][2]

Noun

1. (psychology) A person whose mental imagery is chiefly of touch.^[9][2]

Word family

• tactilely
• nontactile
• tactility
• untactile

Related words

• tact
• tangent
• contact
• intact
• tactual

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.