‖ sensorium
(sɛnˈsɔərɪəm)
Also 7–8 erron. cens-.
[Late L. sensōrium (Boethius), f. sens-, ppl. stem of sentīre to feel: see -ory.]
The seat of sensation in the brain of man and other animals; the percipient centre to which sense-impressions are transmitted by the nerves. Also common sensorium (L. sensorium commune), † first sensorium. Formerly also used in a wider sense, for the brain as the organ of mind and the centre of nervous energy.
| 1647 H. More Song of Soul Notes 139/2 For there is first a tactuall conjunction as it were of the representative rayes of every thing, with our sensorium before we know the things themselves. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 69 Spontaneous motion is performed by continuation of the Animal Spirits, from the common Sensorium to the Muscle. c 1688 Tryon Dreams ii. (1695) 15 When the first Censorium (which is called the Organ of the common Sense) is bound and obstructed with a soporiferous vapour. 1737 Porterfield in Med. Ess. Edin. (ed. 2) III. 219 Which Agitation is communicated to the Sensorium, or that Part of our Brain in which our Mind does principally reside. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 1 Sensation and perception are by the means of nerves and a common sensorium. 1872 Darwin Emotions iv. 83 When the sensorium is strongly excited, the muscles of the body are generally thrown into violent action. 1879 Carpenter Mental Phys. i. i. §13. 15 That we are not always conscious of the working of this Mechanism, is simply because our Sensorium is otherwise engaged. |
b. Used playfully in non-technical writing (sometimes for ‘brain’ or ‘mind’).
| 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy II. x, The ringing of the bell, and the rap upon the door, struck likewise strong upon the sensorium of my uncle Toby. 1814 Scott Wav. lxi, While these reflections passed like the stings of scorpions through Waverley's sensorium. 1842 Campbell Pilgr. Glencoe 469 An artery in his wise sensorium burst. 1908 E. V. Lucas Over Bemerton's iii. (1909) 21 There was, as it were, a veil between them and my sensorium. |
c. fig.
| 1714 Addison Spect. No. 565 ¶8 The noblest and most exalted Way of considering this infinite Space is that of Sir Isaac Newton, who calls it the Sensorium of the Godhead. a 1861 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. III. 595 Rome became the common sensorium of Europe, and through Rome all the several portions of Latin Europe sympathized and felt with each other. 1867 Macgregor Voy. Alone (1868) 24 The tiller, that delicate and true sensorium of a boat. |