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Sensual or sensuous?
Sensual: adjective
- concerning the senses or sensation, sensory; depending only on the senses and
not the spirit or intellect; appealing to or involving appetites or desires;
carnal, fleshly, lewd, depraved; immersed in material or temporal matters
rather than intellectual and spiritual interests; worldly; excessively devoted
to physical pleasure or gratification of the senses; self-indulgent sexually, or
with food and drink.
Sensuous: adjective
- concerning the senses or sensation; derived from or affecting the senses; affecting
the senses aesthetically rather than sensually; readily affected by the senses,
keenly responsive to the pleasures of sensation.
Traditionally, the distinction between 'sensuous'
and 'sensual' makes 'sensuous' a more neutral term with the meaning of 'concerning
the senses rather than the intellect', while 'sensual' relates to gratification
of the senses, especially those of a sexual nature.
Although the words, like so many of these
difficult pairings, are more or less interchangeable, general usage suggests
that 'sensual' be used for sexual or erotic matters, and 'sensuous' be employed
more neutrally for those things that provide pleasurable sensations of a more
general sort.
'Eileen, a sensual creature,
who loved the feel of other skin on her own, was always seeking a mate with
whom she could experience all the wonders of sex.'
'George blamed the size of
his belly and the girth of his waist entirely on the sensuous pleasures of
eating foods that filled his palate with delight and treated his mouth to many
varied textures and tastes.'
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