tact

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The skill of dealing with people sensitively and saying the right thing without causing offence.

   It took a great deal of tact to tell her the bad news gently.

Simplified etymology

Tact comes from Latin tactus, “touch” or “sense of touch,” from tangere, “to touch.” It initially referred to the sense of touch, then developed the idea of sensitivity and, in the late eighteenth century, delicacy in dealing with other people.

Borrowed from French tact, following a semantic shift from earlier tact (“sense of touch; feeling”), borrowed from Latin tāctus (“touched”). The borrowing was likely influenced by earlier English tact (“sense of touch; feeling”), which was a parallel borrowing directly from the Latin.

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External links

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