Fun_People Archive
5 Jan
Sense and Sensibilia and ...

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon,  5 Jan 98 15:31:41 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Sense and Sensibilia and ...

From: jburton@nwu.edu (Joshua W. Burton)

Adjectives from `sense'

I just realized that there are an entirely unreasonable number of these, with
distinctions of meaning ranging from wild to subtle (many of which I could
waste many hours unsuccessfully explaining to a non-native English speaker).
Have I missed any?  And are there any other nouns in the language that have
bestowed such adjectival richness upon us?

sensate			sensational		sensationalistic
sensationalized		sensatory		senseful
sensible		sensile			sensitive
sensitized		sensory			sensual
sensualistic		sensualized		sensuous

I'm not even counting negatives (sense-free, senseless) and compound roots
(sensorineural, sensorimotor).  I'm not sure whether the "lost positive"
sensical is a word (as nocent still is, for example).  But all of the above
are actually in (or near) my moderate-sized active vocabulary.  Is the point
that `sense' is in some sense the abstract parent of all nouns that pertain
to the describable, and hence is the vaguest thing that attracts adjectives?
There is certainly something elusive about the way in which it ties these
fifteen together....

Physic of Metaphysic begs defence,     +--------------------------------------+
And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense! |  Joshua W. Burton     (847)677-3902  |
               -- Alexander Pope       |            jburton@nwu.edu           |
                  Dunciad, book 4      +--------------------------------------+
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From: davidra@physics.ucsd.edu (David Rabson)
Re: Adjectives from `sense'

How about sentient?
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From: joburton@Gems.VCU.EDU
Re: Adjectives from `sense'

How about sensorial?  Or even sentimental?
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