Advertisement

Origin and history of rationality

rationality(n.)

1620s, "quality of having reason;" 1650s, "fact of being agreeable to reason," from French rationalité and directly from Late Latin rationalitas "reasonableness, rationality" (also source of Spanish racionalidad, Italian razionalita), from Latin rationalis "of or belonging to reason, reasonable" (see rational). Middle English had racionabilite "the faculty of reason" (early 15c.), from Latin rationabilitas.

also from 1620s

Entries linking to rationality

rational(adj.)

late 14c., racional, "pertaining to or springing from reason;" mid-15c., of persons, "endowed with reason, having the power of reasoning," from Old French racionel and directly from Latin rationalis "of or belonging to reason, reasonable," from ratio (genitive rationis) "reckoning, calculation, reason" (see ratio).

In arithmetic, "expressible in finite terms," 1560s. Meaning "conformable to the precepts of practical reason" is from 1630s. Related: Rationally. It is from the same source as ratio and ration; the sense in rational is aligned with that in related reason (n.), which got deformed in French.

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    reason
    c. 1200, resoun, "the intellectual faculty that adopts actions to ends," also "statement in an argument, statement of explanation or justification," from Anglo-French resoun, Old French raison "course; matter; subject; language, speech; thought, opinion," from Latin rationem (nom
    empiricism
    [William James, preface to "The Sentiment of Rationality" in "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy,...
    please
    c. 1300, plesen, "to please or satisfy (a deity), propitiate, appease," from Old French plaisir "to please, give pleasure to, satisfy" (11c., Modern French plaire, the form of which is perhaps due to analogy of faire), from Latin placere "to be acceptable, be liked, be approved,"
    absorb
    "to drink in, suck up, take in by absorption," early 15c., from Old French absorbir, assorbir (13c., Modern French absorber), from Latin absorbere "to swallow up, devour," from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + sorbere "suck in," from PIE root *srebh- "to suck, absorb" (source also
    deliver
    c. 1200, deliveren, "save, rescue, set free, liberate," from Old French delivrer "to set free; remove; save, preserve; hand over (goods)," also used of childbirth, from Late Latin deliberare, from de "away" (see de-) + Latin liberare "to free," from liber "free, unrestricted, uni
    schedule
    late 14c., sedule, cedule "ticket, label, slip of paper with writing on it" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French cedule (Modern French cédule), from Late Latin schedula "strip of paper" (in Medieval Latin also "a note, schedule"), diminutive of Latin scheda, scida "one of the
    pilot
    1510s, "one who steers a ship," especially one who has charge of the helm when the ship is passing in or out of harbor, from French pillote (16c.), from Italian piloto, supposed to be an alteration of Old Italian pedoto, which usually is said to be from Medieval Greek *pedotes "r
    rejoice
    c. 1300, rejoisen, "to own (goods, property), possess, enjoy the possession of, have the fruition of," from Old French rejoiss-, present participle stem of rejoir, resjoir "gladden, rejoice," from re-, which here is of obscure signification, perhaps an intensive (see re-), + joir
    stool pigeon
    "police informer," 1859, American English; earlier "one who betrays the unwary (or is used to betray them)," 1821, earlier "a decoy bird" (1812), from a stool as the movable pole or perch to which a pigeon was fastened to lure wild birds. Perhaps a stool was the original device,
    lede
    by 1965, alternative spelling of lead (n.2) in the newspaper journalism sense, to distinguish this specialized sense from other possible meanings of the written word, perhaps especially the molten lead (n.1) used in 20c. typesetting machines...."a people, nation, race; the subjec

    Share rationality

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near rationality
    Advertisement