Word of the Day

: July 24, 2010

tactile

adjective TAK-tul

What It Means

1 : perceptible by touch

2 : of, relating to, or being the sense of touch

tactile in Context

"Nothing prepared me for the tactile reality of the original volumes, leaf after carefully written leaf over which his hand had travelled...." (Edmund Morris, The New Yorker, January 16, 1995)

Did You Know?

"Tangible" is related to "tactile," and so are "intact," "tact," "contingent," "tangent," and even "entire." There's also the uncommon noun "taction," meaning "the act of touching." Like "tactile," all of these words can be traced back to the Latin verb "tangere," meaning "to touch." "Tactile" made its way to our language by way of French, touching ground in English in the early 17th century.