percipient

From Latin percipiēns, present participle of percipiō (“to perceive”).

percipient (comparative more percipient, superlative most percipient)

1. Having the ability to perceive, especially to perceive quickly.
2. (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.

percipient (plural percipients)

1. (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.

2. (parapsychology) One who has perceived a paranormal event.

   In the course of investigating the haunting, I interviewed several percipients.

• perceive
• perceptive
• perceptor

• precipient

percipient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of percipiō