unsense

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English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From un- (absence of, lack of) +‎ sense.

Noun[edit]

unsense (uncountable)

  1. Lack or absence of sense; senselessness; nonsense.
    • 1990, Pat Bigelow, The conning, the cunning of being:
      It is a matter of pressing to the threshold of sense, where unsense is simply the nascent becoming-sense of sense []
    • 2009, Nancy Diekelmann, John Diekelmann, Schooling Learning Teaching:
      The capacity to receive and be disposed to (be affected by) sense turns on how a given particular time calls for what makes “unsense, unsense and no-longer-sense” []
    • 2010, Jones Irwin, Derrida and the Writing of the Body:
      Mary-Ann Caws seeks to explicate the term as follows: 'forcene/for-sene - unsensed by genius but not senseless; for unsense has in it the peculiar echo of an incense. . .something is consecrated here. . .sense is not simply lost... it is gravely undone []

Etymology 2[edit]

From un- (reversal, removal) +‎ sense. Distant cognate with German entsinnen (to reflect).

Verb[edit]

unsense (third-person singular simple present unsenses, present participle unsensing, simple past and past participle unsensed)

  1. (transitive) To remove or deprive of the senses; cause to be insensible.

Anagrams[edit]