sensibility
/ˌsɛn(t)sɪˈbɪlɪti/
sensibility · noun — emotions or feelings arising from or relating to aesthetic or moral standards, especially those which are sensitive and thus likely to be hurt or offended. It carries an Arena rating of 1386, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sensibility ranks #662 of 17,136 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #664 of 17,145 for Most Malleable Words, #2,850 of 17,135 for Most Beautiful Words, #7,332 of 17,135 for Most Elegant Words.
sensibility is pronounced /ˌsɛn(t)sɪˈbɪlɪti/.
Why “sensibility” is a great word
The capacity for refined emotional or aesthetic perception, particularly the faculty for being deeply, discriminately moved or offended. From Late Middle English *sensibilite*, via Middle French *sensibilité* and its etymon Late Latin *sēnsibilitās* (“perception, sensitiveness”), from Latin *sēnsibilis* (“perceptible, sensible”), rooted in *sentīre* (“to feel, perceive”), and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent-* (“to feel”). Unlike “sensitivity,” which denotes a raw, often measurable reactivity to stimuli, or “sentimentality,” which implies a mawkish excess of surface emotion, sensibility is a cultivated interiority, a tuned instrument for nuanced judgment. It is the precise ache evoked by a minor chord in a quiet room, the instinctive recoil from a vulgar phrase in polite company, and the particular sorrow of witnessing beauty that is both perfect and transient—the quiet proof that feeling, too, can be a form of thought.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From Late Middle English sensibilite (“physical ability to sense or perceive; sensitivity to pain; type of perception by a sense organ; perception, understanding; image imprinted on the mind during perception; (philosophy) capacity of the soul to receive information from the senses, perceptibility; (in the plural) the senses”), from Middle French sensibilité and Old French sensibilité (“characteristic or state of being capable of sensation”) (modern French sensibilité), and from their etymon Late Latin sēnsibilitās (“intelligence; perception, sensation; sensitiveness; meaning or sense of words”), from Latin sēnsibilis (“detectable; perceptible, sensible”) (from sentiō (“to perceive with the senses, feel, sense; to be aware or sensible of; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent-
noun
- Emotions or feelings arising from or relating to aesthetic or moral standards, especially those which are sensitive and thus likely to be hurt or offended.e.g.“I apologize if I offended your sensibilities, but that’s the truth of the matter.”
- The ability to feel, perceive, or sense; responsiveness to sensory stimuli; sensitivity; also, the degree to which someone or something (especially a sensory organ or tissue) is able to respond to sensory stimuli.
- The quality of being easily affected by external forces or stimuli; also, of a measuring instrument: the quality of being able to detect small changes in the environment.
- Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness.
- Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness.; Affected or excessive artistic or emotional awareness; the fact or quality of being overemotional; overemotionality.
- Awareness; also, understanding.
- The capacity of something to be perceived by the senses; perceptibility.
- Of a plant or one of its parts: the ability to move in response to a stimulus.
- The ability to perceive or sense as opposed to the ability to understand; also, in the philosophy of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): emotion or feeling as opposed to the will.
- An emotional sense or understanding of something.
- A sign or token of appreciation or gratitude.
- Synonym of Empfindsamkeit.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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