aestheticn.adj.

Etymology: Ultimately < ancient Greek αἰσθητικός of or relating to sense perception, sensitive, perceptive < αἰσθητός sensible, perceptible ( < the stem of αἰσθάνεσθαι to perceive (see aesthesis n.) + -τός , suffix forming verbal adjectives) + -ικός -ic suffix. In use as noun (in senses A. 1, A. 2) and in early use as adjective after German Ästhetik, noun (1744; also †Aesthetik , †Aesthetic ) and ästhetisch, adjective (1748 as †aesthetisch ), which are in turn after post-classical Latin aesthetica , noun (A . G. Baumgarten, 1735: see quots. 1735, 1750 in the note below); compare post-classical Latin aestheticus (adjective) of or relating to sensory perception, (noun) person who studies aesthetics, critic (both 1750 in Baumgarten Aesthetica). Compare also (all < post-classical Latin, in some cases via another modern European language): French esthétique, noun (1753 in sense ‘philosophy of the beautiful or of art’, 1803 in sense ‘science of perception by the senses’, 1819 in sense ‘set of rules or standards by which art is judged’, 1901 in sense ‘pleasing appearance, beauty’) and adjective (1798; 1888 or earlier designating cosmetic surgery), Italian estetica, noun (1756 in sense ‘philosophy of the beautiful or of art’, a1861 in sense ‘pleasing appearance’), estetico, adjective (1772 in sense ‘of or relating to the perception, appreciation, or criticism of that which is beautiful’, 1819 in sense ‘pleasing in appearance’), Spanish estética, noun (1793), estético, adjective (a1862).Post-classical Latin aesthetica was introduced by the German philosopher A. G. Baumgarten (1714–62). Although Baumgarten defined the Latin word as ‘science of cognition by the senses’, in accordance with the sense of the ulterior etymon ancient Greek αἰσθητικός , he also intended aesthetica to cover the sense ‘criticism of good taste’, and it was chiefly in this sense that the Latin noun and its derivatives were adapted into German and other European languages (compare sense A. 2a). Compare the following:1735 A. G. Baumgarten Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus §116 Sint ergo νοητα cognoscenda facultate superiore obiectum Logices, αισθητα επιστημης αισθητικης siue Aestheticae. [Therefore the object of logic are the νοητα which are to be recognized by the superior faculty, the αισθητα επιστημης αισθητικης or things perceived by the aesthetic understanding.]1750 A. G. Baumgarten Aesthetica 1 Aesthetica (theoria liberalium artium, gnoseologia inferior, ars pulcre cogitandi, ars analogi rationis,) est scientia cognitionis sensitivae. [Aesthetics (the theory of liberal arts, lower gnosiology, the art of beautiful thought, the art of proportion) is the science of sensitive perception.] Modern usage of the word and its family largely reflects Baumgarten's use. However, there is also another strand of meaning (sense A. 1), which originated in German with the philosopher Kant; Kant used German Ästhetik in the sense ‘science dealing with the principles of perception by the senses’, and criticized Baumgarten's use as inaccurate on philosophical as well as etymological grounds:1781 I. Kant Critik der reinen Vernunft 21 Eine Wissenschaft von allen Principien der Sinnlichkeit a priori nenne ich die transcendentale Aesthetik. [Note:] Die Deutschen sind die einzige [sic], welche sich iezt des Worts Aesthetik bedienen, um dadurch das zu bezeichnen, was andre Critik des Geschmacks heissen. Es liegt hier eine verfehlte Hoffnung zum Grunde, die der vortreffliche Analyst Baumgarten faßte, die critische Beurtheilung des Schönen unter Vernunftprincipien zu bringen, und die Regeln derselben zur Wissenschaft zu erheben...Ist es rathsam, diese Benennung wiederum eingehen zu lassen, und sie derienigen Lehre aufzubehalten, die wahre Wissenschaft ist, wodurch man auch der Sprache und dem Sinne der Alten näher treten würde, bei denen die Eintheilung der Erkentniß in αἴσθητα και νόητα sehr berühmt war. [The science of all the principles of sensibility à priori, I call Transcendental Æsthetic. The Germans are the only people who at present use this word to indicate what others call the critique of taste. At the foundation of this term lies the disappointed hope, which the eminent analyst, Baumgarten, conceived, of subjecting the criticism of the beautiful to principles of reason, and so of elevating its rules into a science...It is advisable to give up the use of the term as designating the critique of taste, and to apply it solely to that doctrine, which is true science,—the science of the laws of sensibility—and thus come nearer to the language and the sense of the ancients in their well-known division of the objects of cognition into αἴσθητα και νόητα.] For early comments on the use of the words aesthetic and aesthetical in English, compare the following:1832 Philol. Museum 1 369 Beautiful and ugly depend on principles of taste, which it would be very convenient to designate by an adjective..Some English writers have adopted the term esthetical. This has not however yet become an established English word..Perception in general is something very different from that peculiar and complex modification of it which takes cognizance of the beauties of poetry and art. Esthetics would naturally designate the doctrine of perception in general, and might be wanted as a technical term for that purpose. By the Kantian school, indeed, esthetic is used to denote that branch of metaphysics which contains the laws of perception..As an additional reason for hesitating before we adopt esthetic, it may be noticed that even in Germany it is not yet established beyond contest.1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. iii. i. 673 There has lately grown into use in the arts a silly pedantic term under the name of Æsthetics..it is, however, one of the metaphysical and useless additions to nomenclature in the arts, in which the German writers abound.a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) I. vii. 124 It is..nearly a century since Baumgarten..first applied the term Æsthetic to the doctrine which we vaguely and periphrastically denominate the Philosophy of Taste, the theory of the Fine Arts, the Science of the Beautiful..etc.,—and this term is now in general acceptation, not only in Germany, but throughout the other countries of Europe. The term Apolaustic would have been a more appropriate designation. In sense ‘cosmetic’ (see sense B. 6) after French esthétique, adjective (1888 or earlier in this sense, earliest and frequently in chirurgie esthétique). The pronunciation of the word has varied over time. The undated ninth edition by F. R. Sowerby of Walker's Pronouncing Dict. Eng. Lang. (probably published in the 1860s) gives the pronunciation /ɛsˈθɛtɪk/, which is now chiefly U.S. The pronunciation /iːsˈθɛtɪk/, recorded in modern British pronouncing dictionaries as either the only, preferred, or first listed pronunciation, appears to have been well established by the late 19th cent.; N.E.D. (1884) records it as ‘at present most common in London’. It also records the older pronunciation /ɛsˈθɛtɪk/, as well as the now obsolete /ɛsˈθiːtɪk/ and /iːsˈθiːtɪk/.