emotion

See also: Emotion and émotion

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈməʊʃən/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈmoʊʃən/, /iˈmoʊʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊʃən

Noun

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.

3. A reaction by a non-human organism with behavioral and physiological elements similar to a person's response.

Synonyms

• (person's internal state of being): feeling, affect

Derived terms

• appeal to emotion
• emotionable
• emotional

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mew-‎ (0 c, 56 e)

Translations

person's internal state of being

• Afrikaans: emosie
• Albanian: ndjenjë (sq) f, emocion (sq) m
• Arabic: عَاطِفَة‎ f (ʕāṭifa), (plural:) عَوَاطِف‎ f pl (ʕawāṭif), إِحْسَاس‎ (ar) m (ʔiḥsās)
• Armenian: զգացմունք (hy) (zgacʿmunkʿ), հույզ (hy) (huyz)
• Asturian: emoción f
• Azerbaijani: emosiya, duyğu (az)
• Belarusian: эмо́цыя f (emócyja), пачуццё (be) n (pačuccjó)
• Bengali: অনুভূতি (bn) (onubhuti)
• Breton: santad (br)
• Bulgarian: чу́вство (bg) n (čúvstvo), емо́ция (bg) f (emócija)
• Burmese: စိတ်ရှုတ်ခြင်း (cithruthkrang:)
• Catalan: emoció (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感情 (zh) (gǎnqíng), 情感 (zh) (qínggǎn)

• Coptic: ϫⲟⲩϥ ⲛ̀ϩⲏⲧ m (čouf ǹhēt), ⲁⲓⲥⲑⲏⲥⲓⲥ f (aisthēsis)
• Czech: emoce (cs) f
• Danish: følelse (da)
• Dutch: emotie (nl) f
• Esperanto: emocio
• Estonian: emotsioon (et)
• Finnish: tunne (fi), tuntu (fi), tuntemus (fi)
• French: émotion (fr) f
• Galician: emoción (gl) f
• Georgian: ემოცია (emocia)
• German: Gefühl (de) n, Empfindung (de) f Emotion (de) f
• Greek: συναίσθημα (el) n (synaísthima)

  Ancient: πάθος n (páthos)

• Hebrew: רֶגֶשׁ‎ (he) m (régesh)
• Hindi: भावना (hi) f (bhāvnā)
• Hungarian: érzés (hu), érzelem (hu)
• Icelandic: geðshræring (is) f
• Ido: emoco (io)
• Indonesian: emosi (id)
• Ingrian: cuvstva
• Irish: mothúchán (ga)
• Italian: emozione (it) f
• Japanese: 感情 (ja) (かんじょう, kanjō), 心緒 (しんしょ, shinsho)
• Kazakh: эмоция (émosiä), сезім (kk) (sezım)
• Khmer: អារម្មណ៍ (km) (ʼaarɑm)
• Korean: 감정(感情) (ko) (gamjeong)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: his (ku)

• Kyrgyz: эмоция (ky) (emotsiya)
• Lao: ອາລົມ (ʼā lom)
• Latin: affectus m, sensus (la) m
• Latvian: emocija f
• Lithuanian: emocija f
• Macedonian: чувство n (čuvstvo), емо́ција f (emócija)
• Maltese: emozzjoni f
• Maori: panapana (strong), kakare, aurongo
• Middle English: talent
• Mongolian: сэтгэлийн хөдөлгөөн (setgeliin xödölgöön)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: følelse (no) m, emosjon (no) m

• Pali: ārammaṇa
• Pashto: احساس‎ (ps) m (ehsās)
• Persian: احساس‎ (fa) (ehsâs), هیجان‎ (fa) (hijân)
• Plautdietsch: Jefeel n
• Polish: emocja (pl) f
• Portuguese: emoção (pt) f
• Romanian: emoție (ro)
• Russian: эмо́ция (ru) f (emócija), чу́вство (ru) n (čúvstvo) (the first "в" is silent)
• Samogitian: emuocėjė f
• Scottish Gaelic: faireachdainn f, (strong) reachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: осећај m, чувство n, емоција f

  Roman: osećaj m, čuvstvo (sh) n, emocija (sh) f

• Slovak: emócia (sk) f
• Slovene: čustvo (sl) n
• Spanish: afecto (es) m, emoción (es) f
• Swedish: känsla (sv) c, emotion (sv)
• Tagalog: sandandam, emosyon (tl), damdamin (tl)
• Tajik: эҳсос (ehsos), кайфият (kayfiyat)
• Thai: อารมณ์ (th) (aa-rom)
• Tocharian B: eṅkäl
• Turkish: duygu (tr), his (tr)
• Turkmen: duýgy
• Ukrainian: емо́ція f (emócija), почуття́ (uk) n (počuttjá)
• Urdu: جَذْبَات‎ m (jaẕbāt)
• Uyghur: ھېسىيات‎ (hësiyat), تۇيغۇ‎ (tuyghu), كەيپىيات‎ (keypiyat)
• Uzbek: emotsiya (uz), his (uz), tuygʻu (uz), hissiyot (uz), kayfiyat (uz)
• Vietnamese: cảm xúc (vi)
• Welsh: emosiwn (cy) m

Further reading

• “emotion”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• emotion in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• “emotion”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.