sententian.
/sɛnˈtɛnʃɪə/ = sentence n. 4a. Also in modern use, a thought or reflection.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > [noun]
saw9..
quideOE
yedOE
wordOE
wisdomc1175
bysawe?c1225
riotc1330
sentencec1380
textc1386
dict1432
diction1477
redec1480
say1486
adage1530
commonplace?1531
adagy1534
soothsay1549
maxima1564
apophthegm1570
speech1575
gnome1577
aphorisma1593
imprese1593
spoke1594
symbol1594
maxim1605
wording1606
impress1610
motto1615
dictum1616
impresa1622
dictate1625
effate1650
sentiment1780
great thought1821
brocarda1856
text-motto1880
sententia1917
1917 E. E. Cummings Let. 5 May (1969) 19 The immemorially delightful sententia of a pocket-size sailor..i.e. ‘submarines pooh-pooh’.
1926 C. Connolly Let. 25 Dec. in Romantic Friendship (1975) 199 I sent you one diary for quotations and the other was for sententiae.
1933 R. Tuve Seasons & Months i. 43 The Seasons motif found new uses... It became a vehicle for ‘sententia’, folk proverbs which appealed to generations fed upon Hending and Alfred.
1960 Times 29 Sept. 15/5 Those platitudinous sententiae that pass for conversational small change.
a1963 C. S. Lewis Discarded Image (1964) vii. 191 Chaucer begins with a Sententia or maxim in the Parlement.
1971 Eng. Stud. 52 456 An attempt is made to trace the process by which the popular proverb attained equal status with the literary sententia.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1917