feeling

Middle English word dating back to 1125–75; see origin at feel, -ing¹, -ing²

5. Feeling, emotion, passion, sentiment refer to pleasurable or painful sensations experienced when one is stirred to sympathy, anger, fear, love, grief, etc. Feeling is a general term for a subjective point of view as well as for specific sensations: to be guided by feeling rather than by facts; a feeling of sadness, of rejoicing. Emotion is applied to an intensified feeling: agitated by emotion. Passion is strong or violent emotion, often so overpowering that it masters the mind or judgment: stirred to a passion of anger. Sentiment is a mixture of thought and feeling, especially refined or tender feeling: Recollections are often colored by sentiment.

before 900; Middle English felen, Old English fēlan; cognate with Old Saxon fōlian, German fühlen; akin to Old Norse falma to grope. See fumble

When the verb feel is used in the sense "to think or believe," it typically implies believing or having an opinion on the basis of emotion or intuition, even in circumstances unsupported by much real evidence. Although some usage experts object, such use is well established in English and can be traced as far back as Middle English. When feel is used specifically to express a subjective impression, it is often used with as if, as though, or that and followed by a full sentence: I felt as if my world had come to an end. He feels as though it is always raining. I feel that things will get better now. More informally, feel can be used without as if/as though/that : I feel he's guilty. And a full sentence does not have to follow: I felt his answer to be impolite. In the same sense of "to think or believe," an alternative phrase feel like is found in informal or casual speech. This use of feel like typically expresses an opinion or emotional sentiment with a softened or tentative tone: I feel like nothing is getting done here. I feel like he is just too arrogant. Though increasingly common, use of the phrase feel like has been criticized as lazy thinking that ignores real evidence, while avoiding confrontation and debate.