Definition of intuitive

The word "intuitive" has its roots in the Latin verb "intueri," which means "to look within or contemplate." The Latin word "intuitus" was formed by combining "intuere" with the suffix "-tus," which denotes a noun. This Latin noun caught on in medieval times and was adopted by several European languages, including Old French, where it was used to describe things that were internally discerned or spiritually perceived. In the 16th century, Italian scholars popularized the word "intuizione" to describe a cognitive process that involved immediate apprehension or insight into things that bypassed traditional methods of reasoning. The English language adopted the term "intuitive" in the late 17th century, and it was originally used to describe philosophical concepts or religious ideas that could be apprehended directly by the human mind, without the need for external evidence or proof. Today, the term "intuitive" is widely used in fields such as psychology, education, and technology to describe people, strategies, or systems that rely on innate, immediate, and intuitive insight rather than formal logic or analytical reasoning.