different between tactile vs tactual

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French tactile, from Latin tactilis (“that may be touched, tangible”), from tangere (“to touch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tækta?l/, /?tækt?l/

Adjective

tactile (comparative more tactile, superlative most tactile)

1. Tangible; perceptible to the sense of touch.
2. Used for feeling.
3. Of or relating to the sense of touch.
   • H. N. Martin

     The delicacy of the tactile sense varies on different parts of the skin; it is greatest on the forehead, temples and back of the forearm.

Related terms

Translations

See also

• haptic
• palpable
• touchable

Further reading

• tactile in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• tactile in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• tactile at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• lattice, talcite

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin t?ctilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tak.til/

Adjective

tactile (plural tactiles)

1. tactile
2. haptic

Derived terms

• écran tactile
• tactilement

Further reading

• “tactile” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Adjective

t?ctile

1. nominative neuter singular of t?ctilis
2. accusative neuter singular of t?ctilis
3. vocative neuter singular of t?ctilis

English

Alternative forms

• tactuall (obsolete, rare)

Adjective

tactual (comparative more tactual, superlative most tactual)

1. Of, or relating to the sense of touch.
   • 1642, Henry More, Psychodia Platonica, Cambridge, Book 3, p. 61,^[1]

     […] how doth Psyche heare or see

     That hath nor eyes nor eares? She sees more clear

     Then we that see but secundarily.

     We see at distance by a circular

     Diffusion of that spright of this great sphere

     Of th’Universe: Her sight is tactuall.

     The sunne and all the starres that do appear

     She feels them in herself […]

   • 1906, Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic’s Word Book, New York: Doubleday, Page, p. 211,^[2]

     […] the later sovereigns of England have not been tactual healers, and the disease once honored with the name “king’s evil” now bears the humbler one of “scrofula” […]

   • 1908, Helen Keller, The World I Live In, New York: The Century Co., Chapter 1, p. 8,^[3]

     My world is built of touch-sensations, devoid of physical color and sound […] . Every object is associated in my mind with tactual qualities which, combined in countless ways, give me a sense of power, of beauty, or of incongruity: for with my hands I can feel the comic as well as the beautiful in the outward appearance of things.

   • 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London: Chatto & Windus, Chapter 3,^[4]

     ‘Going to the Feelies this evening, Henry?’ enquired the Assistant Predestinator. ‘I hear the new one at the Alhambra is first-rate. There’s a love scene on a bearskin rug; they say it’s marvellous. Every hair of the bear reproduced. The most amazing tactual effects.’

Synonyms

• tactile

Derived terms

• tactuality
• tactually