Etymology

Empfindsamkeit

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Today it means: A musical style of the 18th century, featuring "true" feelings and sudden mood changes. Full definition →

German Empfindsamkeit ← English sensibility
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The story

  1. English · derived fromsensibility
  2. German · borrowed fromEmpfindsamkeit“sensibility, sentimentality”
  3. English todayEmpfindsamkeit

From German Empfindsamkeit (“sensibility, sentimentality”). The German term might derive from English sensibility, a related English literature movement from the same time period.

Words from the same roots

GermanEmpfindsamkeit all →

sentimentality

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.