Wiktionary

sensation

See also: Sensation

English edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

  • enPR: sĕn-sā'shən, IPA(key): /sɛnˈseɪʃən/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun edit

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[1], 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 edit

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit


References edit

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

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

French edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

sensation f (plural sensations)

  1. sensation

Derived terms edit

Further reading edit

Swedish edit

Noun edit

sensation c

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

Declension edit

Declension of sensation 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative sensation sensationen sensationer sensationerna
Genitive sensations sensationens sensationers sensationernas

Derived terms edit

References edit

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