urticate

ur•ti•cate (UR-ti-keyt)

Definition:
v tr
to sting or whip with or as if with nettles
v intr
to produce a stinging or itching sensation
adj
characterized by the presence of hives
urticated past participle; urticated past tense; urticating present participle; urticates 3rd person singular present; urtication noun; urticant adjective

Origin:
1835–45;  from Medieval Latin urticatus, past participle of urticare  "to sting", from Latin urtica "nettle from urere “to burn”

Related:
Related Words: combustion

Sentence Examples:
• In spite of their prominence and the fear which they arouse there are few accurate data regarding these American tarantulas. It has often been shown experimentally that they can kill small birds and mammals, though it is doubtful if these form the normal prey of any of the species, as has been claimed. There is no question but that the mere mechanical injury which they may inflict, and the consequent chances of secondary infection, justify, in part, their bad reputation. In addition to the injury from their bite, it is claimed that the body hairs of several of the South American species are readily detached and are urticating. - Handbook of Medical Entomology, William Albert Riley and Oskar Augustus Johanssen

• In the case of the jelly-fishes, it has been pointed out that their well-known urticating or stinging powers would make them at least unpleasant, if not dangerous, food for fishes; and that consequently the luminosity by which so many of them are characterized at night may serve at once as a warning to predatory fishes and as a protection to themselves.  - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky

• When beacons urticate each eye,
  Noctivagous ghouls haste to stroke
  Each goblin shank of hoary sage.
- Betelguese, Jean Louis de Esque

Sources: Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

proprioception

pro•pri•o•cep•tion (proh-pree-uh-SEP-shuhn)  n

Definition:
the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body
proprioceptive adjective

Origin:
1906; from proprioceptor, from L. proprius "one's own, particular to itself," from pro privo "for the individual" + receptor from O.Fr. receptour or directly from L. receptor, agent noun from recipere "regain, take back," from re- "back" + -cipere, comb. form of capere "to take" from PIE *kap- "to grasp"

Related:
Synonyms: compare to: kinesthesia - the sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints; muscle sense
Related Words: proper, property, receive, perception, inception, reception

proprioceptor
n
a sensory receptor, found chiefly in muscles, tendons, joints, and the inner ear, that detects the motion or position of the body or a limb by responding to stimuli arising within the organism

Sentence Examples:
• The fundament of our mind is the mental map we create of our body. It is a detailed, psychic, rendition of our corporeal self, based on sensa (sensory input) and above all on proprioception and other kinaesthetic senses. - Cyclopedia Of Philosophy, Sam Vaknin

• Other common symptoms include disordered senses that may render the individual overly sensitive or under-responsive to sound, touch, smell and other stimuli. Even the sense of proprioception—spatial awareness of one's own arms, legs and body—can be disturbed. - Time, 2007

• In land-living forms, we are accustomed to thinking of proprioception in terms of posture, of adaptations of the quadruped or erect position to gravity. - Whales, dolphins, and porpoises, Kenneth Stafford Norris

Wikipedia:

Unlike the exteroceptive senses, by which we perceive the outside world, and interoceptive senses, by which we perceive the pain and movement of internal organs, proprioception is a third distinct sensory modality that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with the required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.

Sources: Wikipedia, Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

kinesthesia

kin•es•the•sia (kin-uhs-THEE-zhuh)  n
also kinaesthesia

Definition:
the sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints; muscle sense

kinesthesis noun; kinesthetic adjective; kinesthetically adverb

1880; Mod.L. compound of Gk. kinein "to move" + aisthesis "perception" from PIE base *au- "to perceive"

Related:
Related Words: anaesthesia, paraesthesia

Sentence Examples:
• The relation of our kinesthesia or muscular sense to fanaticism on the one hand and freedom of mind on the other is a matter now beginning to be studied with the promise of highly important results. -The Mind in the Making, by James Harvey Robinson

• I venture to suggest the probability that the physical or energy-aspect of feeling is numerous sets of kinesthetic neurokinetic strains or impulses relating all layers of the great cortex to its effective environment (whether the latter be outside the body or within it), the conscious inhibitory phase of the kinesthesia representing originally the feelings unpleasant in tone, and its subconscious actuating phase the pleasant emotion. -Medical record, George Frederick Shrady, Thomas Lathrop Stedman

• I ask what really matters about dance-floor practice and pursue an analysis of the kinesthesia of queer identifications and the choreography of queer desirings. -Dancing desires: choreographing sexualities on and off the stage, Jane Desmond

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

gustatory

gus•ta•tor•y (GUS-tuh-tor-e)  adj

Definition:
relating to or associated with eating or the sense of taste

gustation noun; gustatorily adverb

Related:
Synonyms:none found
Related Words: gusto, disgust

Sentence Examples:
• Possibly there have been bears of abnormal or vitiated tastes who have indulged in human flesh, just as there are men who eat decayed cheese and "high" game, but the gustatory sins of such perverts may not be visited justly on the species. There are few animals so depraved in taste as to dine off man except under stress of famine, and Bruin is not one of the few. He is no epicure, but he draws the line at the lord of creation flavored with tobacco. -Bears I Have Met, Allen Kelly, 1903
• His food was taken to him in the room he had made his habitation, and it was remarked that, though simple before in his gustatory tastes, he now--possibly owing to the sedentary life he led--became fastidious, insisting on recherché bits. -Prince Zaleski, M.P. Shiel, 1895
• "I could find my way around it in the dark. I'd go to the Ritz or the Carlton and order the finest dinner for three that the most experienced chef ever heard of. You don't know how good a dinner I can give—if I only have the money. I invite you both to become my guests in London as soon as this war is over and share my gustatory triumph." -The Hosts of the Air, Joseph A. Altsheler, 1915

The Storyline
Lost in thought, her eyes latched onto the half-eaten bagel she had abandoned earlier. But the distaste in her mouth from the scene she had just witnessed left no room for the simple gustatory pleasures that she had begun her day with.

Origin:
1684, from L. gustatus, pp. of gustare "to taste" from PIE base *geus-  a root that forms words for "taste" in Gk. and L., but mostly meaning "try" or "choose" in Gmc. and Celt. + -ory

Sources: Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Why This Word:
I'm certain you can name the five senses. Now name the adjectives describing something related to those senses. I'm not sure why these words are less common given that our senses are how we get all of our information about the world. First to mind is probably visual, since those of us with sight get about 90% of our information that way. Maybe next is auditory or tactile, for hearing and touch. Some may get olfactory for smell. Gustatory is probably the least familiar. (In a Google Fight, gustatory lost to all of these terms.) Maybe food has become too processed and packaged and commodified and we've simply lost touch the pleasures of eating; or food has become too much a source of guilt and we won't allow ourselves to think about taste.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day