Etymologically
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sensibilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [sẽːˈsɪ.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [senˈsiː.bi.lis][1]

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

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