Percipient
Origin
From Latin percipient-, root of percipiens, present participle of percipio ("to perceive")
Full definition of percipient
Adjective
percipient
- Having the ability to perceive, especially to perceive quickly.
- (psychology, education, dated) Perceiving events only in the moment, without reflection, as a very young child.Over time children advance from the percipient stage to the perceptive stage, in which they begin to reflect on the significance of events.
Noun
percipient
(plural percipients)- (philosophy, psychology) One who perceives something.
- 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 99 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)As anatomy, physiology and, later, psychology have developed into more or less well-organized sciences, they have necessarily and rightly come to incorporate the study of, among other things, the structures, mechanisms, and functionings of animal and human bodies qua percipient.
- (parapsychology) One who has perceived a paranormal event.In the course of investigating the haunting, I interviewed several percipients.