Definition
nounA person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
Sentence Examples
So great was his emotion that he could not utter a word.
Emotion counts above vocabulary in verbal communication.
Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ
Proto-Indo-European *-s
Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs
Proto-Italic *eks
Latin ex
Latin ex-
Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁-der.
Proto-Italic *moweō
Latin moveō
Latin ēmoveō
Vulgar Latin *exmovēre
Old French esmovoir
Middle French esmouvoir
Middle French emotionbor.
English emotion
Borrowed from Middle French emotion (modern French émotion), from émouvoir (“excite”), based on Latin ēmōtus, past participle of ēmoveō (“to move out, move away, remove, stir up, irritate”), from ē- (“out”) (variant of ex-), and moveō (“move”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"and the water continuing in the caverns[…]caused the emotion or earthquake"
— 1758, “Observations on a slight Earthquake”, in Philosophical Transactions, volume L, page 246:
"He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"“Just think about the last big decision you made. How much of it was based in emotion and how much was based in intellect? Most all big decisions are based in both.” […] Historically, placing weight on emotions has been dismissed. “What’s remarkable is that for so many years, people didn’t see emotions as conveying important messages,” he says."
— 2011 November 9, Susanne Gargiulo, “Emotional intelligence in the workplace”, in CNN: