nounfourth declension
sēnsus commūnis
sēnsus commūnis m sg (genitive sēnsūs commūnis)
Meaning
- tact, manners, discretion
Odium aut est ex offensa: hoc vitabis neminem lacessendo; aut gratuitum: a quo te sensus communis tuebitur.
Hatred is either the result of an offence—and you shall avoid this by never provoking anyone—or else it is gratuitous, in which case tact will protect you from it.c. 65 CE, Seneca Minor, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 17.105.4rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa / fortuna.
For manners are typically rare in people of that sort.c. 100 CE – c. 130 CE, Juvenalis, Saturae 3.8.71–74 - Medieval Latinthe basic faculty of human perception and discrimination between different qualities, shared by all the specific senses and preceding rational judgement
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | sēnsus commūnis | — |
| genitive | sēnsūs commūnis | — |
| dative | sēnsuī commūnī | — |
| accusative | sēnsum commūnem | — |
| ablative | sēnsū commūnī | — |
| vocative | sēnsus commūnis | — |
Origins
Literally, “common (i.e., universal, generally shared) sense”. In the philosophical sense, a calque of Ancient Greek κοινὴ ἔννοια (koinḕ énnoia), κοινὴ αἴσθησις (koinḕ aísthēsis), chiefly in Aristotle.
Descendants
- Englishcommon sense
- Frenchsens commun
- GermanGemeinsinn