receptive

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Italic *kapjō Old Latin kapiō Latin capiō Latin recipiō Latin receptus Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Medieval Latin receptivusbor. Middle English receptive English receptive 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”)).

1. Capable of receiving something.
2. Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas.

   “receptive to the idea”

   “The patient was receptive to her treatment”

3. Of a female flower or gynoecium: ready for reproduction; fertile.

   “When the delightful draught is quaffed and the winged beggar turns to leave, it is confronted with a straight and narrow way out, and before the open can be reached our bee must squeeze under a receptive stigma covered with sticky hairs which comb the pollen grains from the fuzzy back of the visitor.”

4. Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression.

   “receptive fluency”

   “receptive aphasia”

5. Of a female animal (especially a mammal): prepared to mate; in heat, in oestrus.