English
sensitive
Sensitive comes from Latin sentiō ‘to feel’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sent-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sent-‘to feel’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sentiō‘to feel’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsentiō‘to feel’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500sensitivus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600sensitif
- Englishearliest quotation 1624sensitive
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sent-‘to feel’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sentiō‘to feel’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsentiō‘to feel’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500sensitivus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600sensitif
- Englishearliest quotation 1624sensitive
Earliest quotation: 1624, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, The Anatomy of Melancholy: […]: “The sensitive faculty most part overrules reason, the soul…”
Equivalent to sense + -ite + -ive
Proto-Indo-European *sent- ‘to feel’
…
Latin sentiō ‘feel, perceive’
Latin sēnsus ‘sensation, feeling, meaning’
Old French sens ‘sense, perception, direction’
Middle English sense ‘meaning’
English sense
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sent- ‘to feel’
through Proto-Italic *sentiō ‘to feel, to sense, to perceive’
through Latin sentiō ‘to feel’
sense, sentence, consent, scent, consensus, sentiment, sensor, sensation, resent, sensual, assent, sentient, sensibility, sensuous, sentience, sensu, insensible, 32 more
Today it means
adj Having the faculty of sensation; pertaining to the senses.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sent- / sensitive