Sentience
/ˈsɛn.ʃi.əns/noun
The capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjective awareness.
Did you know?Sentience descends from Latin sentientia, from sentire, a verb meaning “to feel, perceive, or think,” which also gave English words tied to sensing, opinion, and conscience.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sent-
“to feel, perceive”
Latin
Latin
sentīre
“to feel, perceive, notice, think”
Late Latin
Latin
sentientia
“feeling, perception, consciousness”
Old French
Old French
sentience
“feeling, sensation”
Middle English
English
sentience
“feeling, sensation, consciousness”
Modern English
English
sentience
“the capacity for conscious experience”