sensuous
[ sen-shoo-uh s ]
/ ˈsɛn ʃu əs /
||
adjective
Nearby words
sensuality, sensualize, sensually, sensum, sensuosity, sensuous, sensuously, sensurround, sent, sente, sentence
SYNONYMS FOR sensuous
Related forms
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for sensuously
British Dictionary definitions for sensuously
sensuous
/ (ˈsɛnsjʊəs) /
adjective
aesthetically pleasing to the senses
appreciative of or moved by qualities perceived by the senses
of, relating to, or derived from the senses
Derived Formssensuously, adverbsensuousness, noun
Word Origin for sensuous
C17: apparently coined by Milton to avoid the unwanted overtones of sensual; not in common use until C19: from Latin sēnsus sense + -ous
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for sensuously
sensuous
1640s, "pertaining to the senses" apparently coined by Milton to recover the original meaning of sensual and avoid the lascivious connotation that the older word had acquired, but by 1870 sensuous, too, had begun down the same path and come to mean "alive to the pleasures of the senses." Rare before Coleridge popularized it "To express in one word all that appertains to the perception, considered as passive and merely recipient ...." (1814). From Latin sensus (see sense (n.)) + -ous. Related: Sensuously; sensuousness.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper