receptive
UK /ɹɪˈsɛptɪv/ · US /ɹəˈsɛptɪv/ adjective
- adjective Capable of receiving something.
- adjective Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas. “receptive to the idea”
- adjective (botany, of a female flower or gynoecium) Ready for reproduction; fertile.
- adjective (neurology, psychology) Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression. “receptive fluency”
- adjective (zoology) Of a female animal (especially a mammal): prepared to mate; in heat, in oestrus.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”), borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“capable of receiving something”), from Latin receptus (“retaken, having been retaken; received, having been received”) + -īvus (suffix added to the perfect passive participial stems of verbs, forming a deverbal adjective meaning ‘doing; related to doing’). Receptus is the perfect passive participle of recipiō (“to regain possession, take back; to recapture; to receive; to accept, undertake”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards; again’) + capiō (“to capture, catch, take; to take hold, take possession; to take on; to contain, hold; to occupy; to possess; to receive, take in; to comprehend, understand; to captivate, charm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Having the quality of receiving; able or inclined to take in, absorb, hold, or contain; receiving or containing; as, a receptive mind.
Etymology [Cf. F. réceptif. See Receive.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “receptive”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details