喜樂美語

Picture a surface that does not register what touches it — press it, heat it, and nothing comes back. Insensitive is that missing response: the signal arrives, but nothing in the thing (or the person) picks it up.

一個「碰了也沒反應」的表面：你按它、加熱它、拿冰塊貼它，它就是不回應——訊號有到，但裡面沒有東西接收。insensitive 講的就是這份缺席的反應。從一塊感覺不到痛的皮膚，到一個感覺不到別人難過的人，動作是同一個：外面有訊息傳來，而接收器沒有亮。這也解釋了為什麼它罵人的時候特別重——你說一個人 insensitive，等於說他身上那個該亮的燈沒亮。

From the word’s history

in- (not) + sensitive, which traces to Latin sentire 'to feel, perceive'. The root is about feeling as reception — the same sentire behind sense, sentiment, and consent. Insensitive therefore names a failure at the receiving end, not at the caring end, which is why it can describe skin and people with the same word.

in-（不）+ sensitive，而 sensitive 追到底是拉丁文 sentīre「感覺、察覺」——sense、sentiment、consent 裡都是同一個字根。關鍵在於 sentīre 講的是「接收」這個動作，不是「在乎」這個心意。所以 insensitive 命名的是接收端的失靈，而不是道德上的壞：正因為如此，同一個字才能既描述一塊沒知覺的皮膚，也描述一個聽不出別人語氣的人。

Wiktionary: insensitive < in- + sensitive; ultimately Latin sentīre ('to feel, perceive')

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

比較級 more insensitive最高級 most insensitive

原始詞典資料4 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

insensitiveadj/ɪnˈsɛnsɪtɪv/

  • 1

    Expressing or feeling little or no concern, care, compassion, or consideration for the feelings, emotions, sentiments, or concerns of other people; inconsiderate or incompassionate.

  • 2

    Not expressing normal physical feeling.

    • It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact.
  • 3

    Not expressing normal emotional feelings; cold; tactless; undiplomatic.

    • 1895, Grant Allen, The British Barbarians Somehow, when Bertram Ingledew let it once be felt he did not wish to be questioned on any particular point, even women managed to restrain their curiosity: and he would have been either a very bold or a very insensitive man who would have ventured to continue questioning him any further.
    • Oh I really should have known by the time you drove me home, / By the vagueness in your eyes, your casual good-byes, / By the chill in your embrace and the expression on your face, / That told me you might have some advice to give / On how to be insensitive.
  • 4

    Unreceptive, indifferent; displaying little openness or receptivity.

    • This early rigidification and satisfaction with his own conclusions made him insensitive to new political and philosophical ideas.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。