sensibilis

Forms

sēnsibilis (neuter sēnsibile, adverb sēnsibiliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sentiō (“to feel, perceive”) + -bilis, formed on its participle ⟨sēnsus⟩.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD date it from Lucretius, who uses it of the particles that can be perceived at any one time.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is passive, what can be perceived by the senses;^[2][5] Seneca contrasts the view that pleasure is a good perceived by the senses, sēnsibile, with his own school's good, grasped by the mind, intellegibile.^[5][6] Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan and very rare.^[5] In Apuleius and Lactantius it is active, able to feel.^[2][5]

In Christian and Medieval Latin it became a common philosophical word: Bede, Alcuin and Adelard of Bath write of sensible things as opposed to those known by the mind,^[7] and Köbler finds it in Thomas Aquinas.^[8] Niermeyer records it as sensitive, endowed with feeling,^[9] and Du Cange has it in the sense of sensible, reasonable.^[10] It is the source of Italian sensibile.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of what can be perceived.^[2][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca contrasts the sēnsibile and the intellegibile good.^[5][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in the sense “capable of sensation”.^[2][8]
• Medieval Latin – Bede and Alcuin use it of things known through the senses.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can be perceived by the senses, perceptible, sensible.^[2][5]
2. Capable of sensation, endowed with feeling.^[2][5][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) Sensible, reasonable.^[10]

Word family

• īnsēnsibilis
• sēnsibilitās

Related words

• sēnsus
• sēnsilis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre