Sententia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A maxim or aphorism that expresses a general truth or principle often used in rhetoric or moral instruction
2. A concise expression of a judgment or opinion that conveys a deeper philosophical or ethical meaning
3. A brief, reflective statement that encapsulates wisdom or insight, typically presented in a quotable form

Etymology: "Sententia" is Latin, meaning "opinion, judgment, a way of feeling" before it came to mean a pithy saying. It derives from "sentire," "to feel, perceive, think," which also gave English "sense" and "sentiment." The root idea is of a mind's verdict: what one feels or judges to be true. Roman rhetoricians then narrowed the sense. A "sententia" became a compact statement of a general truth, the kind of crisp moral observation that could be lifted out of a speech or poem and remembered. Quintilian and other writers on oratory treated these as a prized ornament of persuasive style, and the sense of a memorable judgment expressed in few words carried through to the medieval period. English took the word in the sense of a formal judgment or sentence, and the Latin "sententia" also survives in the legal and rhetorical tradition, but the pithy-saying meaning remained the one most closely tied to its Roman use. The English form "sentence" in the grammatical sense, a complete unit of meaning, descends from this same Latin source through Old French.