α. 1500s pensitiue (perhaps transmission error).
β. 1500s pensatiue, 1600s–1700s 1900s– pensative.
pensativeadj.
/ˈpɛnsətɪv/, U.S. /ˈpɛnsədɪv/ Now rare.
Thoughtful, pensive, anxious.Chiefly in Spanish contexts, esp. in translations from Spanish.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective] > pensive
thoughtfulc1300
pensivea1393
pensya1450
thoughtya1450
pensiful?c1450
pensative1574
melancholy1600
pensived1609
penseroso1813
penserose1831
penseful1865
1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. 512 We see no other thing, but yt ye idle woman goeth alwayes pensitiue [Sp. pensatiua].
1582 N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias i. lxiv. 130 b After that he understoode how small a fleete there was left to defend his countrie withall, he could not bee but verye pensatiue.
1612 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don-Quixote: Pt. 1 Pref. 9 My friend seeing me so pensative, demanded of me the Reason of my musing.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot iv. v. 201 Sancho rested much confounded and pensative of that which he heard they say, that Books of Chivalry only contained follies and lies.
1767 H. Brooke Fool of Quality (ed. 2) II. viii. 59 I began, slow and pensative, to move toward Home.
1810 W. Cox Let. in D. Horward Napoleon & Iberia (1984) xii. 271 Being..of a pensative turn of mind, I take things as they are, and reason upon them cooly and dispassionately.
2000 B. Balzer tr. M. Menendez y Pelayo in Lion & Eagle 233 Heine..looked to the South for heat, light, and liberty for his pensative Germanic poetry.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1574