emotion - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Middle French emotionbor.

English emotion

Borrowed from Middle French emotion (modern French émotion), from émouvoir (“excite”), based on Latin ēmōtus, past participle of ēmoveō (“to move out, move away, remove, stir up, irritate”), from ē- (“out”) (variant of ex-), and moveō (“move”).

emotion (countable and uncountable, plural emotions)

  1. (obsolete) Movement; agitation. [16th–18th c.]
    • 1758, “Observations on a slight Earthquake”, in Philosophical Transactions‎[1], volume L, page 246:
      and the water continuing in the caverns […] caused the emotion or earthquake
  2. A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […] , the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
    • 2011 November 9, Susanne Gargiulo, “Emotional intelligence in the workplace”, in CNN‎[2]:
      “Just think about the last big decision you made. How much of it was based in emotion and how much was based in intellect? Most all big decisions are based in both.” […] Historically, placing weight on emotions has been dismissed. “What’s remarkable is that for so many years, people didn’t see emotions as conveying important messages,” he says.
  3. A reaction by a non-human organism with behavioral and physiological elements similar to a person's response.

person's internal state of being

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “borrowed from French émotion?”)

emotion c (singular definite emotionen, plural indefinite emotioner)

  1. emotion