sensual

Forms

sensual m or f (masculine and feminine plural sensuales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin sēnsuālis (“endowed with sensation; relating to the senses”).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin adjective is post-classical, found in Tertullian and Prudentius, and is formed sēnsus (“sense, sensation”) + -ālis.^[5][1] The noun comes from sentiō (“to sense, feel”), for which de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *snt-ie/o- or *sént-i- (“to notice”).^[6][7] Spanish sentir is the inherited verb of the same root.^[2]

The same learned word is Portuguese sensual, Catalan sensual, Italian sensuale and French sensuel; the French word is recorded from about 1370.^{[8][9][10][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH has its first record in 1515, in Fernández de Villegas, and DICCA-XV in 1417.^[2][11] In that year Enrique de Villena, in Los doze trabajos de Hércules, speaks of killing the apetitos sensuales “sensual appetites” in man.^[12] An earlier hit is the Spanish Historia de Jerusalem abreviada, translated from Jacques de Vitry, which the CDH dates after 1350; its manuscript is of the first half of the 15th century: la carne es enferma segunt la voluntad sensual “the flesh is weak according to the sensual will”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word belonged to moral and philosophical prose: Villena also speaks of the evidence of the senses as a testimonio sensual.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades says that in its proper sense it equals sensitivo, but that it is usually applied to a person carried away by the delights of the senses, and also to whatever belongs to carnal appetite.^[14] The Academy kept these three senses, and today the DLE defines the third as a person given to pleasures of the senses, especially sexual ones.^[15][3] The DTME marks the first sense, “sensitive”, as obsolete.^[16] In the Americas it appears in 1571, in a vocabulary from Mexico City that gives the Nahuatl for sensual persona.^[17]

Timeline

• after 1350 – voluntad sensual in the Historia de Jerusalem abreviada (in a 15th-century manuscript).^[12][13]
• 1417 – Enrique de Villena, Los doze trabajos de Hércules.^[12][11]
• 1515 – first record according to the DCECH, in Fernández de Villegas.^[2]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades distinguishes the proper sense from the usual one.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin sensualis.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the sensations of the senses (sentido).^[3][18]
2. That arouses or satisfies the pleasures of the senses: una música lenta y sensual.^[3][18][1]
3. Of a person: given to the pleasures of the senses, especially sexual ones; voluptuous (voluptuoso).^[3][18]

Word family

• sensualidad
• sensualismo
• sensualista

Related words

• sentir
• sentido
• sensitivo
• sensible
• Latin sēnsuālis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 208
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. sensual
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 640
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sensualis
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sensual
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. sensual
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sensual
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sensuel
11. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. sensual
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sensual
13. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. HJA
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 80
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. sensual
17. ^ a b 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. sensual
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sensual