"insensibility" - Word of the Day from the OED

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insensibility

SECOND EDITION 1989

(nsnsblt)  [ad. late L. insensibilits, f. insensibilis: see -ITY. Cf. F. insensibilité (12-13th c. in Littré).] 

    The quality or condition of being insensible; want of sensibility.

    I. In passive sense.

    1. The quality of being imperceptible, or not appreciable by the senses. rare.

1635 HAKEWILL Apol. v-vi. 24 For your pretended insensibilitie in Natures decay. 1665 GLANVILL Scepsis Sci. xi 60 Which insensibility of slow motions..may thus be accounted for; Motion cannot be perceived without the perception of its Terms, viz. The parts of space which it immediately left, and those which it next acquires.

    II. In active sense.

    2. Incapability, or deprivation, of (physical) feeling or sensation; unconsciousness; a swoon.

c1510 MORE Picus Wks. 12/2 There holdeth me sometyme by almighty god, as it wer euen a swone, and an insensibilitie. 1541 R. COPLAND Guydon's Quest. Chirurg., Man. exam. Lazares Qivb, The insensybylyte of the rotten humours of the outwarde partes. 1692 BENTLEY Boyle Lect. i. 28 He will..dispatch himself resolutely into the State of eternal Sleep and Insensibility. 1774 tr. Boerhaave's Inst. III. 409 After a Nerve has been tied..an Insensibility and Wasting follows in those Parts to which that Nerve was distributed. 1841 LANE Arab. Nts. I. 91, I fell from my horse in a state of insensibility. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IX. 143 The carbonic acid is..heavier than the air..in breathing it insensibility ensues and ultimately death.

    b. Physical insensitiveness (to something).

1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 111 Instances of this insensibility of the system to internal stimuli. 1831 BREWSTER Nat. Magic ii. (1833) 29 The insensibility of the eye to particular colours. 1835 W. IRVING Tour Prairies 245 Perfect hardihood and insensibility to the changes of the seasons.

    3. Incapacity of mental feeling or emotion; incapability of being affected or moved; want of moral susceptibility; apathy, indifference.

1691 HARTCLIFFE Virtues 51 So many Circumstances of Insensibility and hardiness of Mind are urged. 1749 FIELDING Tom Jones XI. vii, I heard this news with the utmost insensibility. 1796 MORSE Amer. Geog. I. 787 The least affliction prompts them to suicide..and they put an end to their days with great apparent insensibility. 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 239, I often wonder at my hardheartedness and insensibility, when I reflect on the earnest and affecting entreaties of these dear friends.

    b. Const. of, to.

1692 SOUTH 12 Serm. (1697) I. 498 An utter insensibility of any good or kindness done him by others. 1802 PALEY Nat. Theol. xxvi. (1827) 535/2 One great cause of our insensibility to the goodness of the Creator is the very extensiveness of his bounty. a1853 J. H. NEWMAN Hist. Sk. (1873) II. II. iii. 253 Insensibility to the common objects of human cupidity.

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