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insensate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 19 October 2011, 19 October 2012, 19 October 2013, 19 October 2014

Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *né
Proto-Indo-European *n̥-
Proto-Italic *n̥-
Latin in-
Latin sensātus
Latin īnsēnsātuslbor.
English insensate

    Learned borrowing from Latin īnsēnsātus.

    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    insensate (comparative more insensate, superlative most insensate)

    1. Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.
      Synonyms: insensible, nonsentient, unaware
      Antonym: sentient
      • 1816, Lord Byron, Diodati:
        Since thus divided — equal must it be
        If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea;
        It may be both — but one day end it must
        In the dark union of insensate dust.
      • 1928, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Moriturus:
        If I might be
        Insensate matter
        With sensate me
        Sitting within,
        Harking and prying,
        I might begin
        To dicker with dying.
    2. Senseless; foolish; irrational; thoughtless.
      Synonyms: mindless, unreasonable, unwise
      • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 304:
        […] the sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh;—[…]
      • 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 13, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:
        Stupidly dozing, or communing with her incapable self about nothing, she sat for a little while with her hands at her ears. . . . Finally, she laid her insensate grasp upon the bottle that had swift and certain death in it, and, before his eyes, pulled out the cork with her teeth.
      • 1913, Joseph Conrad, “ch. 6”, in Chance:
        […] the romping girl teased her . . . and was always trying to pick insensate quarrels with her about some "fellow" or other.
      • 1918, Louis Joseph Vance, “ch. 12”, in The False Faces:
        But in his insensate passion for revenge upon one who had all but murdered him, he had forgotten all else but the moment's specious opportunity.
    3. Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.
      Synonyms: callous, hardhearted, severe; see also Thesaurus:stern
      • 1847, Anne Brontë, “ch. 36”, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:
        I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate.
      • 1904, Frank Norris, “ch. 6”, in A Man's Woman:
        That insensate, bestial determination, iron-hearted, iron-strong, had beaten down opposition, had carried its point.
      • 1917, Frank L. Packard, “ch. 8”, in The Adventures of Jimmie Dale:
        […] the most cold-blooded, callous murders and robberies, the work, on the face of it, of a well-organized band of thugs, brutal, insensate, little better than fiends.
    4. (medicine, physiology) Not responsive to sensory stimuli; unfeeling.
      Synonyms: unreactive, unresponsive
      • 1958 June, Edward B. Schlesinger, “Trigeminal Neuralgia”, in American Journal of Nursing, volume 58, number 6, page 854:
        If the ophthalmic branch is cut the patient must be told about the hazards of having an insensate cornea.
      • 2004 Aug. 1, Jeff G. van Baal, “Surgical Treatment of the Infected Diabetic Foot”, in Clinical Infectious Diseases, volume 39, page S126:
        The presence of severe pain with a deep plantar foot infection in a diabetic patient is often the first alarming symptom, especially in a patient with a previously insensate foot.
      • 2005 Feb. 5, “Minerva”, in BMJ: British Medical Journal, volume 330, number 7486, page . 316:
        The innocuous trauma of high pressure jets and bubble massage to the insensate breast and back areas had caused the bruising seen in the picture.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Etymology 2

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    From the substantivation of the above adjective. See -ate (noun-forming suffix).

    Noun

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    insensate (plural insensates)

    1. One who is insensate.
      • 1873, Thomas Hardy, “chapter 22”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes:
        Here, at any rate, hostility did not assume that slow and sickening form. It was a cosmic agency, active, lashing, eager for conquest: determination; not an insensate standing in the way.

    Etymology 3

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    From Latin īnsēnsātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

    Verb

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    insensate (third-person singular simple present insensates, present participle insensating, simple past and past participle insensated)

    1. (rare) To render insensate; to deprive of sensation or consciousness.
      • 1915, James Oliver Curwood, “ch. 24”, in God's Country And the Woman‎[1]:
        And this thought, blinding them to all else, insensating them to all emotions but that of vengeance, was thought of Josephine.
      • 2002, Shony A. Braun, My Heart Is a Violin‎[2], →ISBN, page 60:
        The train moved on again, keeping us prisoners in a stench-filled car, starving, suffocating, insensated.

    References

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    Anagrams

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    Italian

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    Adjective

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    insensate f pl

    1. feminine plural of insensato

    Noun

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    insensate f pl

    1. plural of insensata

    Anagrams

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    Latin

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    Adjective

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    īnsēnsāte

    1. vocative masculine singular of īnsēnsātus
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