a. [SUPER- 9 a.] Extremely or excessively sensitive. Hence Supersensitively adv., Supersensitiveness.
In first quot. a mistranslation of G. übersinnlich (see SUPERSENSUAL 1 note and quot. 1833).
1839. J. Birch, trans. Goethe’s Faust, 182.
| Thou super-sensitive, most sensual wooer!— | |
| A girl nose-leads the mighty-doer! |
1840. Hood, Open Quest., iv. What is the brute profanity that shocks The super-sensitively-serious feeling?
1864. Webster, Supersensitiveness, excessive or over-sensitiveness; morbid sensibility.
1880. Miss E. S. Phelps, Sealed Orders 300. Her supersensitive ear detects the scratch of her mother’s pen through the closed door.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xxxvi. The self-combating proclivity of the supersensitive.
1895. J. Chamberlain, in Westm. Gaz., 22 July, 2/3. That sectional supersensitiveness which tends to keep apart the two wings of the great National party.
