Is [I]sensical[/I] a word?

It's not a word. Well, it is, but only on the same level as Quaffagement is (made it up).

On Google you find all kinds of crazy things. ;-)

Welcome to the site.

Hi step314,

Yeah it's also rejected by www.spellcheck.net (good site, by the way). Some things we only commonly talk about when they're absent, I guess. Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? ..You get the idea.

Word structure doesn't always play by the rules. The "ical" suffix means "Of or pertaining to" and it can be applied to a lot of root words. "Sensical" is a bit of an odd construct though and I don't see any real benefit to choosing it over "sensible".

I think love can be requited, though...

Hiya Step and welcome to a2k. You're right. Sensical is nowhere to be found.

Monger, You said, "Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable?"

Although combobulated and peccable aren't words, gruntled and ruly are. Also, Phoenix is right about requited love. We may not use it much, but requited is a word.

This discussion brings to mind inert and inept. Ert and ept? Nope.

What sensical should mean.
As I presume most of you know, in Jane Austen's time, sensibility was something that arose from feeling whereas sense was something more rational (hence the whole point of her title). Surely, then, a behavior or belief should be sensible if someone with sensibility would approve of it. I feel that the main reason people nowadays don't use the words "sense" and "sensibility" as Jane Austen did is that "sensible" has had to do double duty for behavior that would be approved by people with both sensibility and sense. And really that is tragic, because Sense and Sensibility is one of the best books in the English language (not quite the equal of Pride and Prejudice, though, IMHO).

I propose that a sensical behavior or opinion should be one that would be approved of by someone with sense. (Similarly, a sensical person is one who possesses sense). I feel stubbornly about this. I simply refuse to avoid the word.

Didna say they weren't real, I was just mentioning we use only one side of certain words. Have you ever heard anyone describe someone as "gruntled" or "ruly"?

Monger, Yup. Me. Although I don't think I've ever used ruly, I have used gruntled enough times to consider it not unusual. Ok, I'm weird. I don't deny it.

Step, Your argument for the existence of the word sensical has merit. What can I tell ya? Use it and see if it catches on.

Roberta,

Well I dunno. Teleport is also rejected on my computer's Spell Check

Neither of those conditions determine what's a word. Dictionaries catalog language, they don't create it. People using language create words when a situation arises that can't be described by existing words, or sometimes, when, even tho' there are many words to describe a situation, a native speaker chooses a new one.

shevelled.

That's how I look this morning.

I'm very gruntled to hear it.

I, however, am this night showing no signs of shevelment whatsoever and could, indeed, be described as totally lacking habille.

There i was about to write 'sensical' when i started questioning its status as a word. So i typed it into google (as you do) and came across your post; actually made me laugh out aloud ^_^

music...musical
magic...magical
nonsense...nonsensical

It's all good.

By the way, for anyone who is interested in this sort of stuff, I saw a great book this week:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Word-Origins-Bloomsbury-reference/dp/0747545707/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

This makes little sense. Please ignore.

It sounded sensical to me . . .

Noam Chomsky, a generative linguist, once used the word 'nonsensical' when explaining the meaning "the colorless green ideas sleep furiously".