sensitive

sensitive
sensible, sensitive
1. The primary meaning of sensible is ‘having (common) sense’, i.e. the opposite of foolish, and of sensitive ‘easily offended or emotionally hurt’. In these uses they hardly get in each other's way. Where they overlap is in meanings to do with reactions involving the senses or feelings: you are sensible of something when you apprehend it with emotional consciousness and are sensitive to something when you react to it with strong emotional feeling, the words ‘consciousness’ and ‘feeling’ characterizing the difference between the two. However, sensible of now sounds old-fashioned, and a more likely choice of words might be conscious of or aware of, although these admittedly denote intellectual rather than emotional perceptions.
2. The nouns sensibility and sensitivity are harder to keep apart. Sensibility corresponds to sensible (in its familiar meaning) much less closely than sensitivity does to sensitive, and chiefly denotes (often in the plural) a person's delicate finer feelings:

• Walter was a little hurt at this since he did most of the cooking at their place, but Zimmerman was too upset to worry about Walter's sensibilities —Ben Elton, 1992.

Sensitivity has a wider range of meanings concerned with physical or emotional reactions of various kinds:

• My reference to it was simply a tease, and all the more tempting given Victor's known sensitivity on the point —Climber and Hill Walker, 1991

• This book's greatest strength is its sensitivity to Kissinger the man —Scotland on Sunday, 2004.


Modern English usage. 2014.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • sensitive — [ sɑ̃sitiv ] n. f. • 1665; herbe sensitive 1639; de sensitif ♦ Mimosa dont les feuilles se rétractent au contact. ● sensitive nom féminin Nom usuel donné à Mimosa pudica, plante dont les feuilles se replient au moindre contact. ● sensitif,… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • sensitive — sen‧si‧tive [ˈsenstɪv] adjective 1. very easily and quickly affected by changes: • Many economically sensitive companies have closed factories and cut their staff. • We face fierce competition from imports and price sensitive consumers (=… …   Financial and business terms

  • Sensitive — Sen si*tive, a. [F. sensitif. See {Sense}.] 1. Having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul. [1913 Webster] 2. Having quick and acute sensibility, either to… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • sensitive — Sensitive. s. f. Espece de plante, qu on appelle ainsi, parce qu elle semble avoir du sentiment, & s éloigner de celuy qui la veut toucher. La grande sensitive. la petite sensitive …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • sensitive — [sen′sə tiv] adj. [ME sensitife < MFr sensitif < ML sensitivus < L sensus: see SENSE] 1. of the senses or sensation; esp., connected with the reception or transmission of sense impressions; sensory 2. receiving and responding to stimuli… …   English World dictionary

  • sensitive — c.1400, having the function of sensation, from M.Fr. sensitif (13c.), from M.L. sensitivus capable of sensation, from L. sensus, pp. of sentire feel perceive (see SENSE (Cf. sense)). Meaning easily affected (with ref. to mental feelings) first… …   Etymology dictionary

  • sensitive — [adj1] impressionable acute, cognizant, conscious, delicate, easily affected, emotionable, emotional, feeling, fine, highstrung, hung up*, hypersensitive, impressible, irritable, keen, knowing, nervous, oversensitive, perceiving, perceptive,… …   New thesaurus

  • Sensitīve — (Sinnpflanze), s. Mimosa …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Sensitive — Sensitive, Sinnpflanze, s. Mimosa …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • sensitive — I (discerning) adjective aesthetic, alert, alive to, apperceptive, appercipient, astute, attentive, awake to, aware, cognizant, conscious, critical, discriminating, discriminative, fastidious, heedful, keen, mindful, observant, penetrating,… …   Law dictionary

  • sensitive — 1 susceptible, subject, exposed, open, *liable, prone Analogous words: impressed, influenced, affected (see AFFECT): predisposed, disposed, inclined (see INCLINE vb) Antonyms: insensitive 2 *sentient, impressible, impressionable, responsive,… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”