conscience

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɒnʃəns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)

1. The moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects one's own behaviour.

   Your conscience is your highest authority.

   • 1949, Albert Einstein, as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist,

     Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.

   • 1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 14, page 175, ¶ 7

     [“]Twer is not a friend of mine testifying against me reluctantly and for conscience’ sake, as the prosecution would have you believe. He is a spy, performing his paid job.[”]

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?

2. (chiefly fiction) A personification of the moral sense of right and wrong, usually in the form of a person, a being or merely a voice that gives moral lessons and advices.
3. (obsolete) Consciousness; thinking; awareness, especially self-awareness.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 1,

     Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

     And thus the native hue of resolution

     Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with "conscience": good, bad, guilty. A good conscience is one free from guilt, a bad conscience the opposite.
• Phrases: To make conscience of, To make a matter of conscience, to act according to the dictates of conscience concerning (any matter), or to scruple to act contrary to its dictates.

Derived terms

Terms derived from conscience

• bad conscience
• consciencelike
• conscience money

• conscience vote
• conscientious

• guilty conscience
• make conscience
• pang of conscience
• a good conscience is a soft pillow

Related terms

• conscientious
• conscientiously
• conscientiousness
• conscionable
• consciousness

Translations

moral sense

• Afrikaans: gewete
• Albanian: ndërgjegje (sq) f
• Amharic: ህሊና (həlina)
• Arabic: ضَمِير (ar) m (ḍamīr), طَوِيَّة f (ṭawiyya), وِجْدَان (ar) m (wijdān)
• Armenian: խիղճ (hy) (xiġč)
• Azerbaijani: vicdan (az), insaf (az)
• Belarusian: со́весць f (sóvjescʹ), сумле́нне n (sumljénnje)
• Bengali: বিবেক (bibek)
• Bulgarian: съ̀вест (bg) f (sǎ̀vest)
• Burmese: အသိတရား (my) (a.si.ta.ra:)
• Catalan: consciència (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 良心 (zh) (liángxīn), 天良 (zh) (tiānliáng)

• Czech: svědomí (cs) n
• Danish: samvittighed c
• Dutch: geweten (nl) n, gewisse (nl) n
• Estonian: südametunnistus (et), süüme
• Faroese: samvitska f
• Finnish: omatunto (fi)
• French: conscience (fr) f
• Friulian: cusience f, cušience f
• Galician: conciencia f
• Georgian: ნამუსი (namusi), სინდისი (sindisi)
• German: Gewissen (de) n
• Greek: συνείδηση (el) f (syneídisi)

  Ancient: συνείδησις f (suneídēsis)

• Hebrew: מַצְפּוּן (he) m (matspún)
• Hindi: विवेक (hi) (vivek), अन्तरात्मा (hi) (antarātmā), ज़मीर (zamīr)
• Hungarian: lelkiismeret (hu)
• Icelandic: samviska (is) f
• Ido: koncienco (io)
• Indonesian: hati nurani (id)
• Irish: coinsias m

  Old Irish: cocubus m

• Italian: coscienza (it) f
• Japanese: 良心 (ja) (りょうしん, ryōshin)
• Kazakh: намыс (kk) (namys), ұят (ūät), ұждан (ūjdan), ождан (ojdan), ар (kk) (ar)
• Khmer: មនសិការ (km) (mĕəʼnĕəʼsekaa)
• Korean: 양심 (ko) (yangsim) (良心 (ko)), 량심 (ko) (ryangsim) (North Korea)
• Kyrgyz: уят (ky) (uyat), намыс (ky) (namıs), ынсап (ky) (ınsap), ыйман (ky) (ıyman)
• Lao: ມະໂນທັມ (ma nō tham)
• Latin: cōnscientia f
• Latvian: sirdsapziņa f
• Lithuanian: są́žinė (lt) f
• Macedonian: совест f (sovest)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Malay: kesedaran
• Maltese: kuxjenza f
• Mongolian: ухамсар (mn) (uxamsar)
• Northern Altai: ыйат (íyat)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: samvittighet (no) m or f

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: съвѣсть f (sŭvěstĭ)

• Old English: inġehyġd n, inġeþōht m
• Old Norse: samvizka f
• Pashto: وجدان m (weǰdãn), ضمير (ps) m (zamír)
• Persian: وجدان (fa) (vejdân), ضمیر (fa) (zamir)
• Polish: sumienie (pl) n

  Old Polish: sąmnienie n

• Portuguese: consciência (pt) f
• Romanian: conștiință (ro) f
• Russian: со́весть (ru) f (sóvestʹ)
• Sanskrit: मनस्साक्षिन् m (manassākṣin), अन्तःकरण (sa) n (antaḥkaraṇa)
• Scottish Gaelic: cogais f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: савест f, савјест f

  Roman: savest (sh) f, savjest (sh) f

• Slovak: svedomie n
• Slovene: vest (sl) f
• Southern Altai: уят (uyat), ынсап (ínsap), выјдан (wíjdan), намыс (namís)
• Spanish: conciencia (es) f
• Swahili: dhamiri
• Swedish: samvete (sv) n
• Tagalog: budhi
• Tajik: виҷдон (vijdon)
• Tatar: вөҗдан (tt) (wöcdan)
• Telugu: అంతరాత్ (antarāt)
• Thai: สำนึก (th) (sǎm-nʉ́k), มโนธรรม (th) (má-noo-tam)
• Turkish: vicdan (tr)
• Turkmen: wyjdan, ynsap
• Ukrainian: со́вість (uk) f (sóvistʹ), сумлі́ння (uk) n (sumlínnja)
• Urdu: ضمیر (ur) (zamīr)
• Uyghur: وجدان (ojdan)
• Uzbek: vijdon (uz), insof (uz)
• Vietnamese: lương tâm (vi) (良心)
• Westrobothnian:
• Yiddish: געוויסן (gevisn)

See also

• synteresis

Further reading

• “conscience”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “conscience”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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French

Etymology

From Old French conscience, borrowed from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sjɑ̃s/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophone: consciences
• Hyphenation: con‧science

Noun

conscience f (plural consciences)

1. conscience
2. consciousness

Antonyms

• inconscience

Derived terms

• consciencieux

Related terms

• conscient
• science

References

• “conscience”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Old French

Alternative forms

• cunscience (Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”).

Noun

conscience oblique singular, f (oblique plural consciences, nominative singular conscience, nominative plural consciences)

1. conscience

   la conscience ne remort point a ces riches homme

   the conscience doesn't bite these rich men

Descendants

• French: conscience
• → Middle English: conscience
  • English: conscience
  • → Irish: coinsias