Sensibilize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To make someone aware of or sensitive to particular issues or emotions
2. To stimulate a heightened awareness or sensitivity towards certain topics or experiences
3. To educate or inform individuals, enhancing their understanding and responsiveness to specific social or emotional matters

Etymology: "Sensibilize" is a fairly modern verb, and its story runs through the older English adjective "sensible," which once meant something very different from today's "reasonable." In earlier English, "sensible" meant able to be perceived by the senses, or capable of feeling, so a sensible wound was one you could feel. That sense of physical perceptibility is the ancestor of the verb's idea of making someone open to a particular experience. The verb probably developed alongside its counterparts in other languages, such as French "sensibiliser" and Spanish "sensibilizar," which share the same formation and meaning. Its exact path into English is not firmly documented, so it is best understood as part of a wider family of related verbs that spread across European languages, each built from the same Latin-derived root for sense and feeling.

Synonyms: awaken, stimulate