susceptibility
(səsɛptɪˈbɪlɪtɪ)
[f. next: see -ity. Cf. med.L. susceptibilitas (Abelard), F. susceptibilité (from 18th c.).]
The quality or condition of being susceptible; capability of receiving, being affected by, or undergoing something.
1. Const. of (now rare) or to. a. Capability of undergoing a specified action or process.
The action is mostly, now always, denoted by a noun (occas. by a passive infinitive), which is usually equivalent to a passive gerund: e.g. susceptibility of application = capability of being applied; s. to reflection = capability of being reflected.
| 1644 Bp. Maxwell Prerog. Chr. Kings viii. 91 Potestas passiva regiminis, a capacity or susceptibility to be governed. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. x. 399 In proportion to its susceptibility of liquifaction in a low degree of temperature. 1823 Coleridge Table-t. 3 Jan., A visible substance without susceptibility of impact, I maintain to be an absurdity. 1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. iii. (1872) 35 Its susceptibility of application to the purpose. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. xxviii, A certain face close on handsome, had a fatal susceptibility to caricature. |
b. Capability of being, or disposition to be, affected by something; sensibility or sensitiveness to something specified: (a) external influences, impressions, etc.
| a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. (1677) 35 The susceptibility of those influences, and the effects thereof. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. i. 20 The susceptibility to the opinions of those around us. 1855 J. H. Newman Callista (1890) 328 A sense of relations and aims, and a susceptibility of arguments, to which before she was an utter stranger. a 1862 Buckle Civiliz. (1864) II. vi. 570 Sympathy, being a susceptibility to impression, is also a principle of action. |
(b) feelings or emotions.
| 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 112 ¶2 The same laxity of regimen is equally necessary to intellectual health, and to a perpetual susceptibility of occasional pleasure. 1755 Young Centaur iv. Wks. 1757 IV. 209 A tenderness of heart, and a susceptibility of awe, with regard to God. 1846 Grote Greece i. i, Susceptibility of pleasure and pain. |
(c) physical agents or agencies, disease, etc.
| 1803 Beddoes Hygëia ix. 171 When young persons..begin to have too great susceptibility of cold. 1820 Faraday Exp. Res. xvi. (1859) 66 The difference between these two alloys as to susceptibility to oxygen. 1882 Med. Temp. Jrnl. L. 67 My studies..have pointed to childhood as a period of extreme susceptibility to this disorder. 1890 Science-Gossip XXVI. 218/2 The period of maximum susceptibility of the larva to the colour. |
2. Without const. a. (a) Capacity for feeling or emotion; disposition or tendency to be emotionally affected; sensibility.
| 1753 Richardson Grandison V. xxi. 123 Yet was her susceptibility her only inducement; for the man was neither handsome..nor genteel. 1805 James Milit. Dict. (ed. 2) s.v. Susceptible, Men of extreme susceptibility are not calculated for command. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 66 The susceptibility, the vivacity, the natural turn for acting and rhetoric, which are indigenous on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times II. xx. 78 There was something about the time and manner of the papal bull calculated to offend the susceptibility of a great and independent nation. |
(b) pl. Capacities of emotion, esp. such as may be hurt or offended; sensitive feelings; sensibilities.
| 1754 Richardson Sir Charles Grandison IV. xxxiii. 228 Emily is a good girl; but she has susceptibilities already. 1846 Grote Greece i. i. I. 39 The women, whose religious susceptibilities were often found extremely unmanageable. 1871 Macduff Mem. Patmos i. 6, It was the ‘another King, one Jesus’ which had roused the susceptibilities—kindled the jealous fury—of the minions of Cæsar. 1884 Gladstone in Daily News 23 Oct. 5/7, I have not knowingly wounded the susceptibilities or assailed the opinions of any one who may read them. 1896 Daily Graphic 10 Feb. 7/1 Nobody wants to offend French susceptibilities by the suggestion that our neighbours have jockeyed us in Siam. |
b. Capacity for receiving mental or moral impressions.
| 1782 V. Knox Ess. Moral & Lit. ii. I. 7 Furnished with a natural susceptibility, and free from any acquired impediment, the mind is then [sc. in youth] in the most favourable state for the admission of instruction. 1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith 298 The same ‘susceptibilities’ and ‘potentialities’ are in each human mind. |
c. Capability of being, or disposition to be, physically affected (as a living body, or an inanimate thing); spec. the capacity of a substance (e.g. iron) for being magnetized, measured by the ratio of the magnetization to the magnetizing force.
| 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 283 Different animals are susceptible of galvanism in very different degrees. In cold-blooded animals, this susceptibility sometimes continues for several days after death. 1817 J. Scott Paris Revisit. (ed. 4) 287 An inhabitant of these islands, who has constitutional susceptibilities that are unpleasantly affected by a humid..atmosphere. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 267/1 The earlier experimenters arrived for the most part at the conclusion that the susceptibility κ of weakly magnetic bodies is constant. 1903 Lancet 4 Apr. 945/2 Susceptibility is very nearly allied to predisposition; it may perhaps be defined as acquired predisposition. |