English
perceive
Perceive comes from Old French percevoir ‘to notice’, and goes back to Latin percipiō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpercipiō1‘to perceive, observe, notice’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400percevoir1‘to notice’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500perceyven1‘to observe or notice through direct sensory experience’
- Englishearliest quotation 1611perceive1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English perceive
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Go from the presence of a foolish man, when…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpercipiōWiktionary, English perceive‘to perceive, observe, notice’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400percevoirWiktionary, English perceive‘to notice’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500perceyvenWiktionary, English perceive‘to observe or notice through direct sensory experience’
- Englishearliest quotation 1611perceiveWiktionary, English perceive. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Go from the presence of a foolish man, when…”
A compound of per ‘by, through’ + capiō ‘to take’
Proto-Indo-European *per-
Proto-Italic *per ‘through, by means of’
Latin per ‘by, through’
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti ‘to be grasping’
Proto-Italic *kapjō ‘to take, seize’
Archaic Latin kapiō
Latin capiō ‘to take’
Linked words
through Latin percipiō ‘to perceive, observe, notice’
Today it means
verb To become aware of, through the physical senses, to see; to understand.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “perceive”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin percipiō / perceive