emotion
(ɪˈməʊʃən)
[ad. L. ēmōtiōn-em, n. of action f. ē-movē-re, f. ē out + movē-re to move.]
† 1. A moving out, migration, transference from one place to another. Obs.
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 3 The divers emotions of that people [the Turks]. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 45 Some accidental Emotion..of the Center of Gravity. |
† 2. A moving, stirring, agitation, perturbation (in physical sense).
Obs.| 1692 Locke Educ. 7 When exercise has left any Emotion in his Blood or Pulse. 1708 O. Bridgman in Phil. Trans. XXVI. 138 Thunder..caused so great an Emotion in the Air. 1755 Porter ibid. XLIX. 118 The horses rose from their litter with violent emotions. 1758 Ibid. L. 647 The waters continuing in the caverns..caused the emotion or earth⁓quake. 1772 Monro ibid. LXII. 18 A diluted spirit of vitriol..occasioned no..emotion. a 1822 Shelley Love's Philos. 6 The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion. |
† 3. transf. A political or social agitation; a tumult, popular disturbance.
Obs.| 1579 Fenton Guicciard. ii, There were..great stirres and emocions in Lombardye. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 24 ¶13 Accounts of Publick Emotions, occasion'd by the Want of Corn. 1757 Burke Abridgem. Eng. Hist. Wks. X. 432 Even in England some emotions were excited in favour of the Duke [Robert of Normandy, in 1103]. |
4. a. fig. Any agitation or disturbance of mind, feeling, passion; any vehement or excited mental state.
| 1660 Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. (R.), The emotions of humanity..the meltings of a worthy disposition. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 432 ¶9 I hope to see the Pope..without violent Emotions. 1762 Kames Elem. Crit. ii. §2. (1833) 37 The joy of gratification is properly called an emotion. 1785 Reid Int. Powers 725 The emotion raised by grand objects is awful. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth, Desirous that his emotion should not be read upon his countenance. |
b. Psychology. A mental ‘feeling’ or ‘affection’ (
e.g. of pleasure or pain, desire or aversion, surprise, hope or fear, etc.), as distinguished from cognitive or volitional states of consciousness. Also
abstr. ‘feeling’ as distinguished from the other classes of mental phenomena.
| 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 422 Sea-sickness..is greatly under the dominion of emotion. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Friendship Wks. (Bohn) I. 81 In poetry..the emotions of benevolence and complacency..are likened to the material effects of fire. 1842 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 61 The intellect is stilled, and the Emotions alone perform their..involuntary functions. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) II. xi. 231 He..almost denounces me..for referring Religion to the region of Emotion. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 249 The..emotions of pity, wonder, sternness, stamped upon their countenances. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. a. attrib., as
emotion-marker,
emotion-reaction.
b. objective and
obj. gen., as
emotion-arousing,
emotion-provoking adjs. c. instrumental, as
emotion-charged,
emotion-shaken adjs.| 1884 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 258 What the action itself may be is quite insignificant, so long as I can perceive in it intent or animus. This is the emotion-arousing perception. |
| 1937 Burlington Mag. June 262/1 He does not attempt to amend his emotion-charged statements. |
| 1964 Crystal & Quirk Prosodic & Paraling. Features in Eng. iii. 41 The problem arises as to where arbitrary divisions in the cline of spasmodic emotion-markers should be made. |
| 1951 J. M. Fraser Psychol. vi. 65 In ordinary life, however, emotion-provoking situations can seldom be solved by such actions. |
| a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Apocalypse (1931) ix. 93 Nay, every image will be understood differently by every reader, according to his emotion-reaction. |
| 1906 B. von Hutten What became of Pam xiii. 316 The stern, nervous, emotion-shaken face. |