A few months ago I was putting my mind to the title Sense and Sensibility. I remembered reading in various places that Elinor had sense and Marianne had sensibility. I had not thought of it deeply until then, but it had never made much sense to me. I thought ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ were similar words; I thought sensibility simply meant to be sensible--sensibleness. But that didn’t seem right, so I decided to look it up. We have 3 or 4 dictionaries laying around the house, and here are some of the definitions:
“Refined awareness and appreciation in matters of feeling”…“Mental or emotional responsiveness towards something”…“Delicacy of feeling”…“The ability to feel or perceive sensations.”
Then I understood. Sensibility means sensitiveness. Probably you readers already knew that. But I wonder how often we don’t really consider or comprehend things such as names of books? Things we hear all the time, but never really think about…
I am so pleased by the notion that you have three or four dictionaries lying about the house, heehee. We have four-- five if you count the fact that one is in two volumes. :P
ReplyDeleteHaha, good point! I remember actually being Quite Puzzled by the title when first I read it. Oh, and is "sensibleness" actually a word? Hmm, 'twould seem so as Blogger isn't underlining it with read. :D You learn something new every day, I guess.
ReplyDelete*RED. ARRRRGH.
ReplyDeleteMiss Dashwood,
ReplyDeleteHmm, I never answered this. Haha. It is indeed a pleasing notion. And I have one in mine own room, as you know. You asked me what it was like twice. :P
Harriet,
Bahaha, I didn't even notice your mistake there! But of course, one cannot leave something like that uncorrected. Indeed not.
And as you know, I sometimes use words that are not legitimate words if it suits my fancy & purposes. :P