Numbing

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Producing a loss of physical sensation or feeling ; causing a dulling of emotional responses or reducing sensitivity to feelings
2. Leading to the absence of tactile perception ; making emotional awareness less sharp or making one feel emotionally detached
3. Inducing physical insensitivity ; causing an effect where emotions or responses are blunted or numbed

Etymology: "Numbing" is simply the present participle of "numb," so its story is really the story of "numb." Our word began as Old English "niman," meaning "to take," and the adjective grew out of the past participle of that verb, "numen," which carried the sense of having been taken or seized. In that older sense, something numb was something that had been taken away from you, and the idea of a limb or mind seized and made insensible followed naturally from it. The surprising detail is the "b." It was never pronounced and was not in the original word; English speakers tacked it on later, probably by analogy with words like "limb" and "thumb," where a silent b had appeared in spelling. So "numb" has a letter that was added for no sound at all, and the modern pronunciation has stayed faithful to the older form. Related words in other Germanic languages point the same way. German "benommen," meaning "dazed" or "numb," and the Old Norse "numinn" share the same root idea of having been taken hold of.

Synonyms: deadening, insensitizing, anesthetic, dulling, stupefying

Antonyms: stimulating, invigorating, exciting, vivifying, energizing