taction
English edit
Etymology edit
Latin tactio (“touching”), from perfect passive participle tactus (“sense of feeling”), from tangere (“to touch, feel”) + action suffix -io; see tact.
Noun edit
taction (countable and uncountable, plural tactions)
- The act of touching; touch; contact.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Humours and Dispositions of the Laputians Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), pages 16–17:
- It ſeems, the Minds of theſe People are ſo taken up with intenſe Speculations, that they neither can ſpeak, nor attend to the Diſcourſes of others, without being rouzed by ſome external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which reaſon, thoſe Perſons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domeſticks, nor ever walk abroad or make Viſits without him.
- The sense of touch.
References edit
- “taction”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “taction”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “taction”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “taction, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
