Dictionary

percept en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɜːsɛpt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈpɝsɛpt/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

A learned borrowing, after concept, from Classical Latin perceptum (“a proposition, principle, general idea”), from the neuter of perceptus (“perceived”), the past participle of percipiō (“to perceive”); see perceive. Coined by the Scottish metaphysician Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856), in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, published posthumously in 1860 (see the quotation).

Meanings

1. (archaic) Something perceived; the object of perception.
   • It may even be that the percepts detected by one sense organ are experienced as having the modality standardly associated with another. 1988, Benny Shanon, “Remarks on the Modularity of Mind”, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, volume 39, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Published for the British Society for the Philosophy of Science by Oxford University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 338:
   • I shall, therefore, make no scruple in using the expression concept for the object of conception, and conception I shall exclusively employ to designate the act of conceiving. Whether it might not, in like manner, be proper to introduce the term percept for the object of perception, I shall not at present inquire. [a. 1857, William Hamilton, “Lecture III. Introduction. […]”, in H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, editors, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1860, →OCLC, page 42:
2. A perceived object as it exists in the mind of someone perceiving it; the mental impression that is the result of perceiving something.
   • Socrates remarks that when he is well he finds wine sweet, but when ill, sour. Here it is a change in the percipient that causes the change in the percept. 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy:
   • I see an inkstand on the table: that is a percept. Moving my head, I get a different percept of the inkstand. 1901, Charles Sanders Peirce, Grammar of Science:
   • So far as in that world it is a stable feature, holds ink, marks paper and obeys the guidance of a hand, it is a physical pen. [...] So far as it is instable, on the contrary, coming and going with the movements of my eyes, altering with what I call my fancy, continuous with subsequent experiences of its ‘having been’ (in the past tense), it is the percept of a pen in my mind. 1905, William James, “How Two Minds Can Know One Thing”, in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods:

Forms

Deriveds

subpercept · perceptron

Relateds

perceive · perceptive · perception

wikipedia: Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

percept en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /pərˈsɛpt/ (General-American)
• /pəˈsɛpt/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Classical Latin percept-, the past participial stem of percipiō (“to perceive”). In etymology 2 sense 2, perhaps independently from percept (“something perceived”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete, rare, transitive) Synonym of perceive.
   • And is not the highest speculation of it percepted and perfected by manuall instruments, and those fallacious too, as themselves complain? 1652, John Gaule, Πῦς-μαντία. The Mag-Astro-Mancer, or the Magicall-Astrologicall-Diviner posed and puzzled:
2. (transitive) To make perceptible or distinct, to reveal.
   • Chemo‐reception, biological membranes, and a discussion of how the reception of taste and odour substances are percepted in the brain, are addressed in Chapter 2. 2001 December 1, Jonathan Rigelsford, “Biomimetic Sensor Technology”, in Sensor Review: The International Journal of Sensing for Industry, volume 21, number 4, Bingley, West Yorkshire: Emerald Publishing, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 323:
   • There was a nun of modesty, who with service was heavy / And big with sweet acts all her sweet life long; / Enough wisdom she had for twenty ordinary women / Who percepted love as a breath, and as a song. 1950, Richard Eberhart, “A Legend of Viable Women”, in John Ciardi, editor, Mid-Century American Poets, New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, published January 1952 (2nd printing), →OCLC, canto II, page 231:
   • The lighter and darker shading of surfaces can be understood as a means for discrimination in percepting each viewpoint, and at the same time as spatial articulation — back, forward, oblique — of the pictorial space of the picture-plane. 1947, László Moholy-Nagy, translated by Daphne M. Hoffman, “The material (surface treatment, painting)”, in The New Vision and Abstract of an Artist (The Documents of Modern Art), New York, N.Y.; Scarsdale, N.Y.: George Wittenborn, →OCLC, “The New Vision” (4th revised edition) section, page 34:

Forms

Synonyms

perceive