Sensibilityとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Late 中期英語 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”).

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌsɛn(t)sɪˈbɪlɪti/
• (General American) IPA: /ˌsɛn(t)səˈbɪləti/, [-ɾi]
• 韻: -ɪlɪti
• ハイフネーション: sen‧si‧bil‧i‧ty

名詞

sensibility (countable and uncountable, plural sensibilities)

1. (countable, uncountable, often in the plural) 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. [from 18th c.]

   Synonym: susceptibilities

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

   • 1855, William H[ickling] Prescott, “View of the Netherlands”, in History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, book II, page 381:

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

   • 2019 May 5 (online publication date), Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, volume 41, number 7, London: Routledge, published 2020, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 567–580:

     However, given current sensibilities about individual privacy and data protection, the recording of oral data is becoming increasingly onerous for researchers […]

   • 2024 June 18, Spencer Klavan, “A Matter of Taste”, in The American Mind‎, Upland, Calif.: Claremont Institute, archived from the original on 2 July 2025:

     Many earnest consumers on the Right feel so legitimately embattled by the nonstop streaming feed of hate speech and psyoppery directed at them that they think they have no choice but to reconfigure their artistic sensibilities accordingly.

2. (uncountable) 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. [from 15th c.]

   Antonyms: insensibility, nonsensibility, (obsolete) unsensibility

   • 153[9], Thomas Elyot, “Of Replecion”, in The Castel of Helth […], London: […] Thomæ Bertheleti […], →OCLC, book III, folio 54, recto:

     [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.

   • 1802, William Paley, “The Goodness of the Deity”, in Natural Theology: Or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature, London: […] [F]or R[obert] Faulder, […], by Wilks and Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 522:

     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. (uncountable) 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.
   • 1669, Robert Boyle, “Experiment XXXVIII”, in A Continuation of New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and Their Effects. The I. Part. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Henry Hall, printer to the University, for Richard Davis, →OCLC, page 127:

     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].

   • 1860 January 4, W[illia]m Thomson [William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin?], “On Instruments and Methods for Observing Atmospheric Electricity”, in Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, volume IV, number 4, London; Glasgow: […] [F]or the [Royal Philosophical] Society [of Glasgow] by Richard Griffin & Company, →OCLC, page 276:

     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. (uncountable) Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness. [from 17th c.]

   Antonyms: insensibility, nonsensibility

   • 1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Exodvs 7, annotations, page 174:

     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.

   • 1711 December 5 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SATURDAY, November 24, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 231; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 159:

     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.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1757 (date written), [Edmund Burke], “Introduction. On Taste.”, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 2nd edition, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1759, →OCLC, part, page 34:

     But, though a degree of ſenſibility is requiſite to form a good judgment, yet a good judgment does not neceſſarily ariſe from a quick ſenſibility of pleaſure; it frequently happens that a very poor judge, merely by force of a greater complexional ſenſibility, is more affected by a very poor piece, than the beſt judge by the moſt perfect; […]

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 108:

     I could not excuse a man's having more music than love—more ear than eye—a more acute sensibility to fine sounds than to my feelings.

   • 1906 August 30, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “Dickens and America”, in Charles Dickens: A Critical Study, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Dodd Mead & Company, published September 1906, →OCLC, page 128:

     A poet who recites his own verses from ten to five with the tears rolling down his face should decidedly be rebuked for his lack of sensibility—his lack of sensibility to those grand rhythms of the social harmony, crudely called manners.

   • 1919 September–December, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1920, →OCLC, page 47:

     [M]uch learning deadens or perverts poetic sensibility.

   • 2016 December 22, Basma Atassi, quoting Raghad Hussein, “Saddam Hussein’s Daughter: Trump has ‘Political Sensibility’”, in CNN World News‎, archived from the original on 28 November 2023:

     This man [Donald Trump] has just arrived to the leadership … But from what is apparent, this man has a high level of political sensibility, that is vastly different than the one who preceded him […]

   1. (specifically, archaic) Affected or excessive artistic or emotional awareness; the fact or quality of being overemotional; overemotionality. [from 18th c.]
      • 1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], “The Bourbonnois”, in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume I, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC, page 182:

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

      • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Animadversions on Some of the Writers who have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, Bordering on Contempt”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 184:

        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.

      • 1807, George Gordon, Lord Byron, “[Fugitive Pieces.] To Romance.”, in Hours of Idleness, a Series of Poems, Original and Translated, Newark [Nottinghamshire?]: […] S. and J. Ridge;  […], published 1807, →OCLC, stanza V, page 136:

        Romance! disgusted with deceit, / Far from thy motley court I fly, / Where Affectation holds her seat, / And sickly Sensibility; […]

      • 1827, Thomas Carlyle, “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter”, in R[alph] W[aldo] E[merson], editor, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, published 1838, →OCLC, pages 7–8:

        By degrees, Jean Paul began to be considered not a strange, crackbrained mixture of enthusiast and buffoon, but a man of infinite humour, sensibility, force, and penetration.

      • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Am Rhein”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 561:

        [T]his lady had the keenest and finest sensibility, and how could she be indifferent when she heard [Wolfgang Amadeus] Mozart? The tender parts of Don Juan awakened in her raptures so exquisite that she would ask herself when she went to say her prayers of a night, whether it was not wicked to feel so much delight as that with which "Vedrai Carino" and "Batti Batti" filled her gentle little bosom?

5. (uncountable, archaic)
   1. Awareness; also, understanding.
      • 1759 February 10, [Samuel Johnson], “The Idler. No. 44.”, in The Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette, number 45, London: […] R. Stevens, […], →OCLC, page 41, column 2:

        [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.

   2. The capacity of something to be perceived by the senses; perceptibility.

      Antonym: insensibility

   3. (botany) Of a plant or one of its parts: the ability to move in response to a stimulus.
      • 1880, Charles Darwin, assisted by Francis Darwin, “The Circumnutating Movements of the Several Parts of Mature Plants”, in The Power of Movement in Plants, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 261:

        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.

6. (uncountable, philosophy) 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.
   • 1610, Saint Augustine, “How the Platonists Conceiued of the Naturall Part of Phylosophy”, in J[ohn] H[ealey], transl., St. Augustine, of the Citie of God: […], [London]: […] George Eld, →OCLC, book XV, page 307:

     [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.

   • 1838, Immanuel Kant, “Transcendental Exposition of the Conception of Space”; “Introduction. Idea of a Transcendental Logic. I. Of Logic in General.”, in [Francis Haywood], transl., Critick of Pure Reason […], London: William Pickering, →OCLC, part I (Of Transcendental Æsthetick), 1st part (Transcendental Æsthetick), pages 33 and 57:

     [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.

7. (countable, obsolete)
   1. An emotional sense or understanding of something.
   2. A sign or token of appreciation or gratitude.

派生語

関連する語

• insensibility
• sense
• sensible

参照

Further reading

• sensibility on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Raymond Williams (1983), “Sensibility”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 280