Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Aesthetic
/ɛsˈθɛtɪk/adjective
Concerned with beauty and the appreciation of it.
The Greek roots
αἰσθητικός
aisthētikós
of sense perception
Literally: “perceptive by the senses”
Follow a root:αἰσθητικός2 words
The story of the word
αἰσθητικός means grasped by the senses, as opposed to grasped by thought alone. Alexander Baumgarten annexed it in 1735 for a science of sensory knowledge, by which he meant beauty, and Kant complained that no Greek would recognise the usage. English adopted the word in the late 18th century, and by Wilde's day an aesthete was a recognised social type. Anaesthesia is the same root with the alpha privative in front: no sensation at all.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → German → English
- First recorded
- late 18th century
Same family
anaesthesiasynaesthesiakinaestheticaesthete
In a sentence
The building works, but the aesthetic argument against it is hard to answer.