sensibility

noun

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- (“to perceive; to think”)) + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives denoting a capacity or worth of being acted upon)) + -tās (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting states of being). By surface analysis, sensible + -ity (suffix forming nouns). Sense 6 (“in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant: emotion or feeling as opposed to the will”) is a use of the word as a calque of German Sinnlichkeit (“receptivity and devotion to what is experienced by the senses; desire for or openness to eroticism, sensuality”).

1. 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.

   “I apologize if I offended your sensibilities, but that’s the truth of the matter.”

   “There is no way more sure of rousing the sensibilities of a commercial people, than by touching their pockets.”

2. 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.

   “[B]y the ſharpnes therof [i.e., of “fumosity” caused by undigested meat], it prycketh and annoyeth the ſynewes, whiche make ſenſibilitie, the rootes of whome, ar in the brayn, and from thenſe paſſeth through all the body.”

   “Perſons in fevers, and I believe, in moſt maniacal caſes, experience great torment from their preternatural acuteneſs. An increaſed, no leſs than an impaired ſenſibility, induces a ſtate of diſeaſe and ſuffering.”

3. 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.

   “About an Attempt to examine the Motions and Senſibility of the Carteſian Materia ſubtilis, or the Æther, with a pair of Bellovvs (made of a Bladder) in the exhausted Receiver [chapter name].”

   “The high sensibility of the divided ring electrometer renders this test really very easy, as not more than from ten to twenty cells are required; […]”

4. Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness.

   “Our Lord [Jesus] is ſaied to haue indurated Pharaoes hart, not that he brought the hardnes it ſelfe, but for that his deſertes ſo requiring, he did not mollifie it, vvith ſenſibilitie of fear infuſed from aboue.”

   “Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue. […] It is such an exquisite sensibility, as warns her to shun the first appearance of every thing which is hurtful.”

5. Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness.

   “―Dear ſenſibility! ſource inexhauſted of all that's precious in our joys, or coſtly in our ſorrovvs!”

   “People of ſenſibility have ſeldom good tempers. The formation of the temper is the cool vvork of reaſon, vvhen, as life advances, ſhe mixes vvith happy art, jarring elements.”

6. Awareness; also, understanding.

   “[M]any vvho mark vvith ſuch accuracy the courſe of time, appear to have little ſenſibility of the decline of life. Every man has ſomething to do vvhich he neglects; every man has faults to conquer vvhich he delays to combat.”

7. The capacity of something to be perceived by the senses; perceptibility.
8. Of a plant or one of its parts: the ability to move in response to a stimulus.

   “The oscillatory and jerking movements of the leaves of Dionæa, which resemble those of the hypocotyl of the cabbage, are highly remarkable, as seen under the microscope. They continue night and day for some months, and are displayed by young unexpanded leaves, and by old ones which have lost their sensibility to a touch, but which, after absorbing animal matter, close their lobes.”

9. 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.

   “[S]enſibility is but a ſpecies of the body; but vnderſtanding of the life: and therefore they preferred intellect before ſence: Senſible things are thoſe that are to be ſeen or touched. Intelligible can only be vnderſtood by the minde.”

   “[page 33] This predicate (attribute) is only so far applied to things, as they appear to us—that is, as they are objects of sensibility. The constant form of this Receptivity which we name Sensibility, is a necessary condition of all relationships, wherein objects are envisaged as external to us, […] [page 57] If we will term the receptivity of our mind for receiving representations, so far as it is in some way affected, sensibility, so is, on the other hand, the faculty of itself bringing forth representations, or the Spontaneity of the cognition, the Understanding. […] Without sensibility no object would be given to us, and without understanding none be thought.”

10. An emotional sense or understanding of something.
11. A sign or token of appreciation or gratitude.
12. Synonym of Empfindsamkeit.