sententiously 
sententiously (sen-ten'shus-li), adv. In a sen- 
tentious manner; in short, expressive periods; 
with striking brevity. 
The poets make Fame a monster ; they describe her in 
part finely and elegantly, and in part gravely and senten- 
tivusly. Bacon, Fragment of an Essay on r'ame(ed. 1887). 
sententiousness (sen-teu'shus-nes), n. The 
quality of being sententious or short and ener- 
getic in expression; pithiness of sentences; 
brevity of expression combined with strength. 
That curious folio of secret history, and brilliant sen- 
tentiousiiess, and witty pedantry, the Life of Archbishop 
Williams by Bishop Hacket. 
1. D'Israeli, Amen, of Lit, II. 330. 
senteryt, '* An obsolete form of sentry^. Mil- 
Inn. 
sentience (sen'shi-ens), H. [< sentien(t) + -ce.] 
Sentient character or state; the faculty of 
sense; feeling; consciousness. 
This opinion, in its general form, was that of the senti- 
ence of all vegetable things. Poe, Tales, I. 301. 
Since, therefore, life can find its necessary mobility in 
matter, can it not also acquire its necessary sentience from 
the same source ? Nineteenth Century, XX. 346. 
If the term sentience be employed as preferable to con- 
sciousness, it must be understood as equivalent to con- 
sciousness in the broader sense of the latter word. 
G. T. Ladd, Physiol. Psychology, Int., p. 3. 
sentiency (sen'shi-en-si), . [As sentience (see 
-cy).~\ Same as sentience. 
There are substances which, when added to the blood, 
render sentieitcy less vivid. 
//. Spencer, Prin. of Psychol., 42. 
sentient (sen'shi-ent), a. and u. [= P. sentant 
= Sp. senciente = Pg. sensiente = It. sentiente, < 
L. sentien(t-)s, ppr. of sentire, feel, perceive : see 
scent, sense^.] I. a. 1. Capable of sensation 
or of sense-perception; having the power of 
feeling. 
The series of facts by which Socrates manifested himself 
to mankind, and the series of mental states which consti- 
tuted his sentient existence, went on simultaneously with 
the series of facts known by the name of the Peloponne- 
sian war. J. S. Mill, logic, I. v. 6. 
How the happiness of any part of the sentient creation 
would be in any respect diminished if, for example, chil- 
dren cut their teeth without pain, we cannot understand. 
Jfacaulay, Sadler's Ref. Refuted. 
2. Characterized by the exercise of sense or 
sense-perception. 
A sentient and rational life without any self-interest in 
the examination of its own permanent characteristics, 
and of the grounds upon which it rests, would be an ab- 
surdity. Q. T. Ladd, Physiol. Psychology, p. 585. 
8. In physiol., noting those parts which on 
stimulation give rise to sensation Sentient 
soul. Sees<ran. = Syn. 1. Sensitive, etc. See sensible. 
II. n. The mind as capable of feeling. 
If the sentient be carried, "passibus sequis," with the 
body, whose motion it would observe, supposing it regu- 
lar, the remove is insensible. Glamrille, Seep. Sci. 
sentiently (sen'shi-ent-li), adv. In a sentient 
or perceptive manner, 
sentiment (sen'ti-ment), n. [< ME. sentement, 
< OF. sentement, sentiment, F. sentiment = Pr. 
sentiment = Sp. sentimiento = Pg. It. sentimento, 
< ML. sentimentum, feeling, affection, senti- 
ment, opinion, < L. sentire, feel, perceive: see 
sense^-, scent.] If. Feeling; sensation; senti- 
ence; life. 
She colde was and withouten sentemente, 
For oght he woot, for breth ne felt he non. 
Chaucer, Troilus, iv. 1177. 
2. Higher feeling; emotion, (a) In psyclwl., an 
emotional judgment ; also, the faculty for a special emo- 
tion. 
I am apt to suspect . . . that reason and sentiment con- 
cur in almost all moral determinations and conclusions. 
Hume, Prin. of Morals, 1. 
We speak of sentiments of respect, of esteem, of grati- 
tude ; but I never heard the pain of the gout, or any other 
mere feeling, called a sentiment. 
Reid, Active Powers, v. 7. 
The mental or internal feelings the sentiments may 
be divided into contemplative and practical. The former 
are the concomitants of our cognitive powers, the latter 
of our powers of conation. Sir W. HamUton, Metaph., xlv. 
Sentiment is nothing but thought blended with feeling ; 
thought made affectionate, sympathetic, moral. 
J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 236. 
But immediately that the proper stimuli bring them 
into action there will be a certain pleasure from the moral 
exercise, as there is from the exercise of other functions ; 
and that pleasure is naturally felt as moral sentiment. 
Maudsley, Body and Will, p. 172. 
Hume seems to have perceived in belief something more 
than the mere operation of ideas. He speaks frequently 
of this phenomenon as a sentiment, and he appears to have 
regarded it as an ultimate faet, though governed by the 
conditions of association and habit. 
J. Sully, Sensation and Intuition, p. 75. 
(b) Sensibility, or a tendency to make emotional judg- 
ments; tender susceptibility. 
5497 
Inasmuch as religion and law and the whole social or- 
der of civilized society, to say nothing of literature and 
art, are so founded on sentiment that they would all go to 
pieces without it, it is a word not to be used too lightly in 
passing judgment, as if it were an element to be thrown 
out or treated with small consideration. 
0. W. Holmes, Poet at Breakfast-Table. 
3. Exhibition or manifestation of feeling or 
sensibility, as in literature, art, or music; a 
literary or artistic expression of a refined or 
delicate feeling or fancy. 
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion, emotion precipi- 
tated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 365. 
The grace and sentiment of French design [medieval 
painting] are often exquisite, but are less constant than 
in the work of the early Italian painters. 
C. II. Moore, Gothic Architecture, p. 306. 
4. Thought; opinion; notion; judgment; the 
decision of the mind formed by deliberation or 
reflection : as, to express one's sentiments on a 
subject. 
On questions of feeling, taste, observation, or report, we 
define OUT sentiments. On questions of science, argument, 
or metaphysical abstraction, we define our opinions. 
William Taylor, English Synonyms Discriminated (1850). 
It has always been a sentiment of mine that to propa- 
gate a malicious truth wantonly is more despicable than 
to falsify from revenge. Sheridan, School for Scandal, ii. 2. 
5. The sense, thought, or opinion contained in 
words, but con sidered as distinct from them : as, 
we may like the sentiment when we dislike the 
language. Hence 6. A thought expressed in 
striking words; especially, a sentence expres- 
sive of some particularly important or agree- 
able thought, or of a wish or desire; in par- 
ticular, a toast, often couched in proverbial 
or epigrammatic language. 
Come, Mr. Premium, I'll give you a sentiment; here's 
success to usury ! Sheridan, School for Scandal, iii. 3. 
This charming sentiment, recommended as much by sense 
as novelty, gave Catherine a most pleasing remembrance 
of all the heroines of her acquaintance. 
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, xv. 
7. pi. In phren., the second division of the moral 
or affective faculties of the mind, the first be- 
ing termed propensities. See phrenology. 8f. 
Taste ; quality. 
Other Trees there ben also, that beren Wyn of noble sen- 
lenient. Mandeville, Travels, p. 189. 
Practical sentiments. See practical. =Syn. 2-4. Senti- 
ment, Thouyht, Feeling. Sentiment has a peculiar place 
between thought and feeling, in which it also approaches 
the meaning of principle. It is more than that feeling 
which is sensation or emotion, by containing more of 
thought and by being more lofty, while it contains too 
much feeling to be merely thought, and it has large influ- 
ence over the will : for example, the sentiment of patriot- 
ism ; the sentiment of honor ; the world is ruled by senti- 
ment. The thought in a sentiment is often that of duty, 
and is penetrated and exalted by feeling. 
sentimental (sen-ti-men'tal), a. [= F. senti- 
mental = Sp. Pg. sentimental = It. sentimentale 
= D. sentimenteel = OJ. Sw. Dan. sentimental; 
as sentiment + -al.~\ 1. Swayed, or apt to be 
swayed, by sentiment ; of a tender and suscep- 
tible heart ; mawkishly tender or susceptible : 
as, a sentimental person. This quality was highly 
valued about the third quarter of the eighteenth century, 
but later was regarded almost with disgust. Hence the 
word at one time bore a favorable, at a later time an unfa- 
vorable implication. 
A sentimental mind is rather prone to overwrought feel- 
ing and exaggerated tenderness. Whately. 
Some of the most sentimental writers, such as Sterne (and 
Byron), seem to have had their capacities of tenderness ex- 
cited only by ideal objects, and to have been very hard- 
hearted towards real persons. 
A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 208. 
2. Containing or characterized by sentiment; 
appealing to the feelings rather than to reason : 
as, a sentimental song; sentimental works. 
I have something else for you, which I am fabricating at 
a great rate, and that is my Sentimental Journey, which 
shall make you cry as much as it has affected me, or I will 
give up the business of sentimental writing, and write to 
the body. Sterne, Letters, cxiii. 
Perhaps there is no less danger in works called sentimen- 
tal. They attack the heart more successfully because 
more cautiously. V. Knox, Essays, No. 171. 
= Syn. Romantic, Sentimental (see romantic), hysterical, 
gushing, etc. (in style). 
sentimentalise, sentimentalise! 1 . See senti- 
mentalize, sentimentalizer. 
sentimentalism (sen-ti-men'tal-izm), n. [< 
sentimental + -ism."] Tendency to be swayed by 
sentiment; affected sensibility or sentiment; 
mawkish susceptibility; specifically, the phi- 
losophy of Rousseau and others, which gave 
great weight to the impulses of a susceptible 
heart. The French revolution, with its terror, was re- 
garded as in some measure the consequence of this phi- 
losophy, which thenceforward fell more and more into con- 
tempt. At present, the fact that it was a deliberately de- 
fended attitude of mind is almost forgotten, the current 
of sentiment running now strongly the other way. 
sentinel 
Eschew political sentimentalism. 
Disraeli, Coningsby, iv. 15. 
In German sentiment, which runs over so easily into 
xfnliineiitalwm, a foreigner cannot help being struck with 
a certain incongruousness. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 290. 
sentimentalist (sen-ti-men'tal-ist), n. [< sen- 
timental + -int.'] One who is guided by mere 
sentiment; a sentimental person; in a better 
sense, one who regards sentiment as more im- 
portant than reason, or permits it to predomi- 
nate over reason. 
For Burke was himself also, in the subtler sense of the 
word, a sentimentalist that is, a man who took what 
would now be called an aesthetic view of morals and poli- 
tics. Lou-ell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 350. 
sentimentality (sen"ti-men-tal'i-ti), . (X sen- 
timental + -ity.'] The quality of being senti- 
mental ; affectation of fine or tender feeling or 
exquisite sensibility ; sentimentalism. 
The false pity and sentimentality of many modern ladies. 
T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, II. 201. 
They held many aversions, too, in common, and could 
have the comfort of laughing together overworks of false 
sentimentality and pompous pretension. 
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, xii. 
sentimentalize (sen-ti-men'tal-Iz), v. ; pret. 
and pp. sentimentalized, ppr. 'sentimentalizing. 
[< sentimental + -ize.~\ I. intrans. To indulge 
in sentiment ; talk sentiment ; play the senti- 
mentalist. 
And so they reproach and torment themselves, and re- 
fine and sentementeKze, till gratitudebecomes burdensome, 
. . . and the very idea of a benefactor odious. 
Miss Edgeworth, Emilie de Coulanges. 
II. trans. To render sentimental ; give a sen- 
timental character to. 
The adapters . . . sentimentalize the character of Lydia, 
and almost humanize the hero. 
Athenseum, No. 3284, p. 457. 
Also spelled sentimentalise. 
sentimentalizer (sen-ti-men'tal-I-zer), n. One 
who sentimentalizes. Also spelled sentimen- 
taliser. 
A preacher-up of Nature, we now and then detect under 
the surly and stoic garb [of Thoreau] something of the 
sophist and the sentimentalizer. 
Lowell, Study Windows, p. 203. 
sentimentally (sen-ti-men'tal-i), adv. In a 
sentimental manner; as regards sentiment ; to- 
ward or in reference to sentiment: as, to be 
sentimentally inclined ; to speak sentimentally. 
sentinet (sen'tin), n. [< OF. sentine, F. sentine 
= Pr. Sp. Pg. It. sentina, < L. sentina, water in 
the hold of a ship, bilge-water.] A place into 
which dregs, dirt, etc., are thrown; a sink. 
I can say grossly . . . the devil to be a stinking sentine 
of all vices, a foul filthy channel of all mischiefs. 
Latimer, Sermons (Parker Soc.)> p. 42. 
sentinel (sen'ti-nel), n. and a. [Formerly also 
sentinell, centinel,centinell, centonell; =MD. sen- 
tinelle = Sp. centinela = Pg. sentinella = It. sen- 
tinella, a sentinel, < OF. sentinelle, F. sentinelle, 
a sentinel, a watch, a sense transferred from 
the earlier meaning 'a watching at a particu- 
lar post,' not given by Cotgrave, but apparent 
from Kilian's def. (MD. "sentinelle, excubias, 
vigiliee, primae excubise, excubitor exstans, sta- 
tic, stationes" Kilian, Appendix), and from 
the phrase lever de sentinelle, relieve from sen- 
tinel's duty, lit. 'take from his beat,' sentinelle 
being originally, it appears, the post itself, a 
sentinel's beat, the same as sentinelle, a path, 
a little path, dim., like the eqniv. sentelle, a 
little path, of OF. sente, a path (cf . OF. sente- 
ret, a little path, dim. of sentier, F. sentier, a 
path, < ML. semitarius, a path), < L. Semite, a 
path, foot-path, by-path, prob. < se-, apart, + 
meare(-\/mi),go: seemeatus. This view agrees 
with a similar explanation of sentry 1 , q. v.] I. 
n. If. Watch or guard kept by a soldier sta- 
tioned for the purpose at a particular place. 
Counsellors are not commonly so united but that one 
counsellor keepeth sentinel over another. 
Bacon, Counsel (ed. 1887). 
Vpon the verge of the Riuer there are flue houses, 
wherein Hue the honester sort of people, as Farmers in 
England, and they keepe continuall centineU for the 
townes securitie. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, II. 12. 
2. A soldier stationed as a guard, either to 
challenge persons drawing near and to allow 
to pass only those who give a watchword, and, 
in the absence of this, to resist them and give 
an alarm, or for display or ceremony only. 
I was employ'd in passing to and fro, 
About relieving of the sentinels. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., ii. 1. 70. 
3. A sentinel-crab. 
II. <i. Acting as a sentinel; watching. 
