sensation

English

Etymology

From Old French, from Medieval Latin sensatio, from Latin sensus.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕn-sā'shən, IPA^(key): /sɛnˈseɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

sensation (countable and uncountable, plural sensations)

1. A physical feeling or perception from something that comes into contact with the body; something sensed.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

   • 1921, Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind:

     Confining ourselves, for the moment, to sensations, we find that there are different degrees of publicity attaching to different sorts of sensations. If you feel a toothache when the other people in the room do not, you are in no way surprised; but if you hear a clap of thunder when they do not, you begin to be alarmed as to your mental condition.

2. (psychology, physiology) Excitation of sensory organs.

   Coordinate term: perception

   • 1822, John Barclay, chapter I, in An Inquiry Into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, Concerning Life and Organization‎, Edinburgh, London: Bell & Bradfute; Waugh & Innes; G. & W. B. Whittaker, section I, page 2:

     In the dead state all is apparently without motion. No agent within indicates design, intelligence, or foresight: there is no respiration; […] no sensation; […]

3. A widespread reaction of interest or excitement.
   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “Two or three months more went by; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […] ”

   • 1937, H. P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep:

     Young Derby's odd genius developed remarkably, and in his eighteenth year his collected nightmare-lyrics made a real sensation when issued under the title Azathoth and Other Horrors.

4. (figurative, uncommon, dated) A remarkable person.

   Synonym: event

   You truly are a sensation.

5. (slang, archaic) A small serving of gin or sherry.
   • 1852, George Butler Earp, Gold Seeker's Manual, page 52:

     A Sensation . . . . Half-a-glass of sherry.

   • 1869, Meliora, volume 12, page 47:

     When men go into a 'sluicery' for a 'sensation,' a 'drain,' or a 'common sewer,' they call the glass of gin they seek, in allusion to the juniper, a 'nipper,' or, more briefly, a 'nip,' occasionally a 'bite,' and not unfrequently it turns out a 'flogger.'

Hyponyms

• Thesaurus:sensation

Derived terms

Related terms

• sensational
• sensation fiction
• sensation novel
• sense
• sensible
• sensitive
• sensory
• sensual

Translations

References

• (small serving of gin): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Further reading

• “sensation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “sensation”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “sensation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Estonians, insonates

French

Etymology

Inherited from Medieval Latin sensationem, accusative of sensatio, from Latin sēnsus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɑ̃.sa.sjɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

sensation f (plural sensations)

1. sensation

Derived terms

• faire sensation
• sensation forte

Further reading

• “sensation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Swedish

Noun

sensation c

1. a sensation ((something causing) widespread excitement)
2. (psychology) a sensation (perception)

   Synonym: sinnesintryck

Declension

Derived terms

• sensationsjournalistik

References

• sensation in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sensation in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sensation in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)