apprehensivenessn.
1. Aptness to apprehend; intelligence, perceptiveness, discernment.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > [noun]
witOE
understandinga1050
intention1340
intendmentc1374
knowledgea1387
intelligencec1390
conceitc1405
intellect?a1475
perceiverancea1500
perceiverationa1500
receipta1500
intendiment1528
reach1542
apprehension1570
toucha1586
understandingnessa1628
apprehensivenessa1639
ingenuity1651
comprehensiona1662
intelligibility1661
intelligency1663
uptake1816
a1639 H. Wotton Surv. Educ. in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) 81 We shall often mark in it [the eye] a dulness, or apprehensiveness, even before the understanding.
1702 S. Parker tr. Cicero Five Bks. De Finibus 144 The Winged World make frequent Discoveries of their Apprehensiveness and Memory.
1850 W. Wordsworth Prelude viii. 232 Yet knowledge came..In fits of kindliest apprehensiveness, From all sides.
2. The habit of anticipating things adverse; fearfulness as to what may be coming.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > apprehension > [noun] > apprehension > habit or state of
trancec1374
pensiveness1601
apprehensiveness1748
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa IV. xxviii. 169 So much Apprehensiveness, that her fears are ever aforehand with her dangers.
1860 A. L. Windsor Ethica vii. 399 Nervous anxiety and..exaggerated apprehensiveness.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1885; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.a1639