sensibilidad

Forms

sensibilidad f (plural sensibilidades)^[1] The 15th-century texts write sensibilidat.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sēnsibilitās (“sensibility”), a learned word.^[3][1][4] The Latin noun is formed from sēnsibilis (“perceptible”), itself from sentiō (“to feel, perceive”).^[5][6] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *sént-i- (“to notice”).^[7] Corominas treats the word with the other learned derivatives under sentir.^[8][9]

The Romance languages have the same learned word: Portuguese sensibilidade, Galician sensibilidade, Catalan sensibilitat, French sensibilité and Italian sensibilità.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in Pedro de Toledo's translation of Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed (1419–1432), which lists sensibilidat with life, humanity and rationality among the accidents of a being.^[2] Corominas dates it about 1440, from Alfonso de la Torre, whose Visión deleitable speaks of the sensibilidad by which man moves.^[8][9][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word belonged to philosophy and medicine: a surgical treatise says the nerve is very sensitive because of its great sensibilidat.^[2] Autoridades defined it as the capacity of the senses to receive impressions of pleasure and pain, and as the philosophical form that makes a being sentient, quoting Feijoo on la sensibilidad de los brutos.^[10][8] The Academy's 1884 edition added the moral sense, a natural inclination to compassion and tenderness.^[11] Moliner and the DLE add the sensitivity of an instrument and, more recently, a particular way of feeling or thinking, as in political sensibilidades.^[12][3]

Timeline

• 1419–1432 – sensibilidat in Pedro de Toledo's translation of Maimonides.^[2]
• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena uses it in his glosses on the Aeneid.^[2]
• c. 1440 – Alfonso de la Torre, the first record in the DCECH.^[8][9]
• 1515 – first record of insensibilidad.^[9]
• c. 1730 – Feijoo uses it of the sentience of animals.^[8]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it.^[10]
• 1775 – first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “inclination to compassion and tenderness”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The faculty of feeling (sentir), proper to living beings; sensation.^[3][1]
2. The quality of being sensible; sensitivity, of people or of instruments: Este micrófono tiene mucha sensibilidad.^[3][1][12]
3. A particular way of feeling or thinking: las distintas sensibilidades del partido.^[3]

Word family

• insensibilidad

Related words

• sensibilización
• sensible
• sentir
• sensibilizar
• Latin sēnsibilitās

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sensibilidad
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sensibilidad
4. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sensibilidad
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sensibilitas
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sensibilis
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 208
9. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sentir
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 80
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 967
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sensibilidad
13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sensibilidad