percept

English

WOTD – 6 May 2011

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin perceptum, neuter of perceptus (“perceived”), past participle of percipiō (“to perceive”); see perceive.

Pronunciation

Noun

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜːsɛpt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɝsɛpt/

• Audio (US):

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Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈsɛpt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pərˈsɛpt/

Noun

percept (plural percepts)

1. (philosophy, psychology, now rare) Something perceived; the object of perception. [from 19th c.]
   • 1860, William Hamilton, Lectures in Metaphysics, III.3:

     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.

2. (philosophy, psychology, linguistics) A perceived object as it exists in the mind of someone perceiving it; the mental impression that is the result of perceiving something. [from 19th c.]
   • 1901, Charles Sanders Peirce, Grammar of Science:

     I see an inkstand on the table: that is a percept. Moving my head, I get a different percept of the inkstand.

   • 1905, William James, “How Two Minds Can Know One Thing”, in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods:

     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.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy:

     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.

Verb

percept (third-person singular simple present percepts, present participle percepting, simple past and past participle percepted)

1. (obsolete, rare, transitive) to perceive
   • 1652, John Gaule, Πῦς-μαντία. The Mag-Astro-Mancer, or the Magicall-Astrologicall-Diviner posed and puzzled:

     And is not the highest speculation of it percepted and perfected by manuall instruments, and those fallacious too, as themselves complain?

Related terms

• perception
• perceive
• perceptive

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “percept, v.”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Further reading

• “percept”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “percept”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• precept