Word of the Day Archive
Sunday July 20, 2008
insensate \in-SEN-sayt; -sit\ , adjective:
1. Lacking sensation or awareness; inanimate.
2. Lacking human feeling or sensitivity; brutal; cruel.
3. Lacking sense; stupid; foolish.
The religion of primeval humans, he suggested, held that souls inhabited not only human beings but also animals, trees, plants--even rocks, rivers, and other natural features we regard as insensate.
-- Bill Strubbe, "The world as self, the self as world", The World & I, June 1, 1997
The cutting room is a cruel place, where writing that may have cost blood to commit to paper is kneaded and pummelled like so much insensate clay.
-- Jasper Rees, "Blood and ink on the floor", Independent, April 13, 1997
Europe needs security and, having experienced the insensate forces loosed by this war, wonders if security is a mirage.
-- Arthur Irwin, "Looking beyond VE-day", Maclean's, May 1, 1995
But then, without warning, the conflict degenerated, and the insensate killing began.
-- Jay Winik, "Between Honor and Glory", American Spectator, February 1, 2001
You'd have to be insensate not to know that the ad is designed to undermine Wellstone's popularity in this year's Senate race.
-- Greg Gordon, "Loopholes loom large as parties find a way around spending limits", Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 23, 1996
Insensate comes from Late Latin insensatus, from in-, "not" + sensatus, "gifted with sense, intelligent," from Latin sensus, "sense."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for insensate
