intuition

Forms

intuition f (plural intuitions)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin intuitio, a word of scholastic Latin, already found in Late Latin meaning “sight, look”, or “image reflected in a mirror”.^[2][3][4] It is formed on Latin intuitus, the supine of intueor (“to look at attentively, consider”), from in- and tueor (“to look at, watch over”), a verb of unknown origin.^[3][5] Bloch and Wartburg note an isolated earlier use in the 14th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1542, in Pierre de Changy's De l'office du mary, meaning the act of contemplating.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In philosophy it came to mean a direct knowledge that does not go through reasoning (about 1640, Descartes); the TLFi dates this sense from the 1752 supplement of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux.^[3][2] In theology it named the direct vision of God (1762).^[3] Since the early 19th century it has been the everyday word for a feeling of what is or will be, a hunch (1831, Balzac).^[2][3] Later learned derivatives include intuitionniste (1874), intuitionnisme (1908) and intuitionner (1937).^[3]

Timeline

• 14th century – An isolated early record.^[6]
• 1542 – First regular record, for “contemplation”.^[2]
• c. 1640 – Descartes uses it for immediate knowledge.^[3]
• 1752 – The Trévoux supplement records the sense “immediate knowledge”.^[2]
• 1831 – Balzac uses it for a presentiment.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (philosophy) Immediate knowledge that does not rely on reasoning.^[7][2]
2. A hunch or feeling about something one cannot verify or that has not yet happened.^[7][1]
3. The faculty of grasping things this way: avoir de l'intuition.^[7][5]

Word family

• intuitionner

Related words

• intuitif
• tuteur
• Latin intueor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert