percept

Meanings

1. Something perceived; the object of perception.
2. A perceived object as it exists in the mind of someone perceiving it; the mental impression that is the result of perceiving something.

1. Synonym of perceive.
2. To make perceptible or distinct, to reveal.

Etymology

A learned borrowing, after concept, from Classical Latin perceptum (“a proposition, principle, general idea”), from the neuter of perceptus (“perceived”), the past participle of percipiō (“to perceive”); see perceive. Coined by the Scottish metaphysician Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856), in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, published posthumously in 1860 (see the quotation).