Acception

/ækˈsɛpʃən/ noun

Definition

The act of accepting something; acceptance, or in archaic usage, the meaning or sense in which a word is accepted or understood.

Etymology

From Latin 'acceptio' derived from 'accipere' (to accept, receive). The term is now quite archaic, largely replaced by 'acceptance' or in older philosophical texts refers to how words are construed.

Kelly Says

In medieval philosophy, 'acception' was crucial—scholars debated the 'acception' of terms, meaning the exact sense in which words were being used in arguments. It's the ancestor of modern semantic theory.

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